


Kids

by MKZ4345



Series: Killjoys [3]
Category: Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Album), My Chemical Romance
Genre: Angst, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, M/M, Minor Violence, Original Character(s), Presumed Dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-06-25 04:49:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 27,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19738645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MKZ4345/pseuds/MKZ4345
Summary: The Killjoys, now more established in creating a safer desert, meet a strange woman and her uh... precious cargo.





	Kids

**Author's Note:**

> This took 7,000 years to write, my computer died and I had to find a replacement the same day, I almost couldn't redownload scrivener to the new computer, managed to get it back, recovered the fic, AND FORMATTED IT THE SAME NIGHT.  
> I currently want to die! :) I have to redownload everything that was on that computer to this new one. But for now, I just wanted to get this finished and formatted. I'm going to fucking sleep right now.

The alert system had been working great. Way better than any of them could have hoped. The way it worked was that if someone needed help and had access to a radio they would send a distress signal over the radio (Poison wasn’t super sure how it worked, despite being a fucking droid and made of math) and it would be broadcast over that channel. There was a radio in the radio station that was always tuned to that channel and would pick up the signal as soon as it was lit up. And once it was, the Killjoys were off to follow it. The technicalities of following the signal were left to the only two people who understood that shit: Jet Star and Show Pony. The rest was kick ass, save zoners, and form allies. Poison, Ghoul, and Kobra knew how to do that, so that’s what they focused on.

On a certain day, one with far too much sun for anyone’s liking, they got a particularly weak distress signal. One barely able to be heard, so much so that Dr. D almost didn’t report it to Poison that morning.

“It’s real weak,” Dr. Death said, looking over the equipment.

“What does that mean?” Poison asked, peeking over his shoulder at the crazy looking machines.

“It means it’s far away.”

Show Pony came to help with finding the signal, telling them with shock that it was coming from Zone 5.

“Far northwest,” Show Pony said, checking their numbers again. “Directly west of the Zone 4 gas station.”

“Got it,” Poison said quickly, taking the paper Show Pony held out for him.

He gathered the others and they all sprung into action, running outside with him and donning their masks. Something this far out probably wasn’t BLI but you couldn’t be too safe in the zones.

As they drove to the sound of feint beeping, the signal they were following, Poison wondered about where they were going. There was hardly anything left that far north, what was someone doing all the way up there? He suddenly thought about the prospect of it being a trap of some sort. But BLI wouldn’t waste their manpower on sending a drac team all the way to Zone 5 just to lure four idiots with high-powered blasters into a gunfight that they could possibly lose. It wasn’t unheard of for BLI to lose those types of encounters.

It was difficult to get to that side of the zones, purely because of the roads and where they ran. From the radio tower, there was one road that ran mostly east-west. As it went west it bent south, and east it bent north. Those were just the major roads, but the smaller roads were cracked and broken to all shit and almost impossible to drive on. If you went west on that road and turned north on the major highway there, it lead straight to Battery City. Then, it split into two roads that ran alongside the city for its entire length, northwest and northeast. If you took that northwestern road, it connected to a highway that took you south into zones 4, 5, and 6. There was no major highway to get where they were trying to go. Which meant that they would have to drive off-road. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, though. The zones were generally flat except near the gorge and Dead Man’s Drop so it wasn’t a horrible thing to drive off-road. You just had to be sure your car could handle it. And the trans am could handle it, even more-so now with Kobra and the Sisters’ tune-ups. But still, driving into the northwest edge of the zones was difficult, even for long-time zoners like the Killjoys.

By the time they were halfway there, the signal was strong and they were sure it was truly a distress signal. The channel was a secret one anyway, Jet boasted that it was hidden with military grade somethingy whatsits. Poison didn’t listen very hard when he talked about it. Made his head hurt.

They risked taking the western road that went near Bat City. It was far enough away that it wasn’t an immediate worry, but it was close enough to be seen if you weren’t quick enough. Instead of taking the road that turned southwest, they kept going north until they found the road that took them to the gas station in Zone 4. From there, they could off-road to their unknown destination. Before that, though, they would get gas.

The Zone 4 gas station wasn’t the busiest place, simply because of its location. The Killjoys have never actually been there before, so when they were greeted by three droids in varying states of decay they had no idea what to expect.

They rolled up to one of the gas pumps cautiously, and Poison got out of the car before anyone could stop him.

He stood still as the most together droid made their way to him.

“Here for gas?” They asked, and Poison was surprised by their voice. It sounded like their vocal processor was badly damaged, like the rest of them. Metallic and broken.

“Yeah,” Poison said, trying to figure out the casual interaction they seemed to be having. “Are you three okay?”

“Yes,” the droid said curtly, moving to start pumping gas for them.

“Okay.” Poison didn’t want to make them distrust them. He was determined to get on their good sides. “Do you know how to get directly west from here?”

“West?” The droid stood up straight after affixing the gas pump to the trans am. “You going to the Cannery?”

“Maybe, we’re following a distress call,” Poison explained, motioning to the thing Jet was holding inside the car. Speaking of inside the car, the rest of the Killjoys were watching the exchange with wide, uncertain eyes. “We just know it’s due west of this gas station.”

“Well, the Cannery is the only thing I know of further west than this. But you said a distress call?” The droid looked extremely worried suddenly.

“Yeah, we’ve created a system for zoners to use when they need help. We’re trying to keep people safe.” Poison was ready to pitch his idea to yet another person, but was surprised at what they said next.

“Do you know if they’re sending it manually right now or is it just a thing you turn on?”

“Uh, I’m not super tech savvy…” Poison paused to think about how silly that was. “But I think it’s an automatic system. You turn it on and it just goes.”

“Oh fuck,” the droid muttered, twisting their hands. “Look, if you’re going to the Cannery to help her, please do it fast. Something happened and I don’t know what it was, but if she was in that much trouble, I just-”

“Whoa, slow down, start over. Do you know who we’re going to help?”

“Yes, her name is Quick Silver.”

“Like the comic book character?”

“What?”

“Nothing, please go on.”

“She has really important stuff in the Cannery and she usually strolls through here to pick up supplies and gas. A little over a week ago this gas station was attacked. It’s why me and my family here are all torn up…” They looked to the other droids, still standing and watching warily. “A group of dracs shot up the place and tortured us. They headed west but the next day Quick Silver was back and was surprised to hear about the dracs. They must not have made it to the Cannery. But that was the last time we saw her.”

“I’m very sorry to hear about the attack. We know a doctor on the other side of Zone 4 that can help you guys out.” Poison handed them the Oblivion Hotel’s card. “We can ask them to send one of their vans to the major highway to pick you all up and get you there.”

The droid stared at the card, then said, “I didn’t know there were… So many people in the zones…”

“More than you think.”

“We just went north of the city until we found something. We’ve been here ever since we left Battery City.”

“The zones are a big place. Do you want me to call the doctor and have his nurse send a van for you guys while we go make sure your friend Quick Silver is okay?” Poison pulled out his walkie talkie.

“I…” The droid looked at him, stunned and still comprehending what he’d said. “Yes.”

“Okay.” Poison tuned his walkie talkie to the Oblivion’s designated channel and held the button down. “Nurse Joy, I’d like to give you something better to do today than play scrabble with Nurse Fear.”

“Go for Joy, what the fuck are you talking about?” Nurse Joy crackled through the other line.

“I’ve got three droids out at the Zone 4 gas station that need escorting to the Good Doctor asap. One’s missing a leg, the other two are torn to all hell and need assistance and new battery packs.”

“What? Oh my god, there are people that far north?!”

“Focus, Joy.” Poison rolled his eyes, making the droid smile back.

“Sorry! I’m on it! ETA is about two hours!”

“Copy that.” Poison turned the radio off and looked back to the droid. “What’s your name?”

“I’m a model D7L-800,” the droid said, looking back to the other two. “The one on the left is a model B6N-500 and the other is a model R8Y-500.”

“Okay, but what are your names.” Poison realized now, after all this time, how fucking sick that made him feel. The fact that they weren’t given names.

“What?” D7L looked at him, confused.

“My model number is G3R-600, but my name is Party Poison,” he offered. “If Quick Silver were a droid, she’d still be called Quick Silver, right?”

D7L nodded.

“Think of some names while you’re at the Oblivion.” Poison took the gas pump out of the trans am. “And thanks for the gas. We’re going to find your friend now.”

“Be very careful!” D7L shouted as soon as they came back to reality, just as Poison was getting into the driver’s seat. “She is protecting things out there that are extremely valuable, she might try to attack you!”

“We’re not dracs-”

“No, you misunderstand. She will try to attack anyone she doesn’t know, because nobody knows about the Cannery but us. Tell her we sent you as soon as you can or else you could get badly hurt. She will protect those things with her life.”

Poison stared at D7L, then nodded.

They drove off the asphalt and onto dirt and sand, heading exactly west of the gas station. Poison caught everyone up on the situation and told them to be on their guard. If something had happened to Quick Silver, it was most likely dracs. And if what she was protecting was in BLI’s interest, they had to protect it too.

Tense silence was all they drove in until they could see the Cannery. Or, more specifically, the smoke coming from it. It had been attacked, alright. Poison threw the car in a higher gear and sped up, making Ghoul shout at him. The beeping was louder and louder until suddenly it cut off. Poison stopped the car suddenly, looking to Jet.

“What the hell just happened?” He demanded, looking at the machine in Jet’s lap.

“I don’t know, it just stopped,” Jet said, fiddling with buttons and knobs. “But we know where to go-”

“No, what if it’s a trap?” Kobra said, leaning forward. “The signal cutting out like that isn’t a very good sign. What if those droids were lying?”

“They weren’t,” Poison said stubbornly. They couldn’t have been. They’d already sent Nurse Joy to pick them up, they weren’t allowed to have lied. “Let’s just go check it out.”

“I have a bad feeling…” Ghoul muttered as he followed Poison out of the car.

The first thing Poison noticed were the drac bodies littering the front entrance of the building. At least seven, he noted. That was a lot. Drac groups were usually made up of five to seven, so the fact that Poison saw another two in the lobby of the building as they went in was very alarming.

As they crept through the building and into the main part of the Cannery, the factory area, they found the source of the smoke. It looked like a bomb had gone off, and to be honest Poison couldn’t think of another reason why there would be black marks all over the walls and floor mixed in with drac blood. The area was on fire but it seemed to be dying down, thankfully. There wasn’t a whole lot in a factory that could burn, most of it was metal and concrete. They moved from that room into a hallway off from the factory, following it slowly and checking every office they passed. The building was empty so far, and Poison was starting to feel the same bad feeling that Ghoul was. That is, until he heard panicked whispers coming from the end of the hall, the last office.

“What have you done?!” One voice whispered, and Poison tapped Kobra on the shoulder. Kobra nodded, he heard it too.

“You need help!” Another voice whispered. They all froze. That sounded significantly younger than the other voice. “You’re shot and bleeding!”

“Cherry, you’ve put us all in danger!” The first voice whispered.

“They’ll come and help us, I know it!”

“They aren’t real!” That was louder, exasperated, tired of having to say the same thing again. “Bombshell lied to you!”

“No she didn’t, she knows that they’re real and she’s seen them! They’ll save us, give it back!”

Poison was done listening to this. He was sure that this Cherry person was a child and he was freaking out. He started moving quickly down the hall.

“Hello?” He called, and the hall went deadly silent. “I know you’re back there. We’re not going to hurt you. D7L-800 sent us to help you.”

A woman with sunbleached messy bloody hair stepped out into the hallway, pointing a shotgun directly at Poison’s face.

“My name is Party Poison and these are my friends, Kobra Kid, Fun Ghoul, and Jet Star. We’re-”

“The Killjoys!” A small girl, a little, small child ran out of the room to face them, her face lit with wonder. That must be Cherry. “I told you they were real!”

“Cherry!” The woman spun around and shoved Cherry back into the room. She then went back to pointing the gun in Poison’s face. “Get the fuck out of here and never come back.”

“Is your name Quick Silver?”

The woman faltered momentarily.

“D7L told me that you’re their friend. They told me that we need to help you.”

“Silver, please!” Cherry said, poking her head out of the room again.

“Cherry, stop,” the woman, Quick Silver, said. He voice was weaker this time. Poison noticed the fresh blood pooling around her side. Whatever wound was there had reopened from moving around, Poison guessed she wasn’t in much of any state to be pointing a gun at him, much less using one with so much kickback. “Please.”

“Quick Silver, we can help. We know a doctor on the eastern side of Zone 4 and we have a safe place for you to stay.”

“Where,” she demanded, not lowering the gun.

“The radio station in Zone 2.”

“Too close,” she said. She was losing her strength, Poison was starting to get really worried about her. “Too close to Bat City.”

“Let’s compromise, then,” Poison said, taking a step closer to her. “We’ll go the long way around in Zone 4, get you to the Oblivion Hotel where the doctor is, and you can stay there. Far away from Bat City.”

Quick Silver, stared at him. She was older than any of them, probably in her late thirties. She looked more tired than even Dr. Death. She slowly lowered the gun, nodding.

As she did, Cherry came bounding out of the room to meet them all. Jet walked past Poison and started helping Quick Silver walk the other way down the hall.

“Wait,” Quick Silver said urgently, turning around slightly. “The kids, bring them with, please, keep them safe with me.”

Kids. Plural. Oh fuck.

Poison walked forward and looked into the office at the end of the hall. Four more kids sat on ratty cots on the ground, all staring with wide eyes full of wonder. Poison took his mask off and they all did little adorable gasps.

“No!” Cherry shouted. “Super heroes aren’t supposed to reveal their identities!”

Poison jumped, looking down at her.

“Now we have to be your sidekicks since we know who you are!”

Poison stared at the room of kids again. He counted two other girls and two boys. What did they just get themselves into?  


* * *

“Please stop,” the doctor begged, desperately trying to grab Quick Silver’s arm as she flailed on her hospital bed.

“No! Get that away from me!” She shouted, staring horrified at the needle in Nurse Joy’s hand. “I thought you said I needed to get blood, not have it taken!”

“Either way involves a needle…” Nurse Joy said quietly, looking down.

“No way, stop!” She wrenched her arm out of the doctor’s grip and shuffled herself away from him.

“Ma’am, please, I need to take a sample of your blood so that-”

“No!”

“-I can match it with a blood type to give you a transfusion with!” The doctor was tired, he’d just operated on three droids today and was now dealing with a whole new plate of problems from all angles. 

They’d gotten to the Oblivion just before midnight, going the long way around Zone 4 as promised took a hell of a lot longer than Poison had wanted it to. With a car made for five at most stuffed with five adults and five children, the ride there was absolute hell and chaos. The kids were scared, of course. Mostly they were scared because their caretaker had been so badly injured in the fight last week that she was now close to death and these strangers who were supposedly the famed Killjoys had shown up and were taking them from their home. Poison could understand their fear. But fuck, he didn’t want to have to drive while listening to endless “where are we going”s and “where are you taking us”s and “are you really the Killjoys”s. Ghoul answered all of their questions patiently and endlessly. Poison was forever grateful for this. 

Once they’d actually gotten to the Oblivion they met with the doctor and filled him in on Quick Silver’s condition and the “precious cargo” she was carting with her. The doctor and Nurse Joy had been working on fixing up the three droids from the gas station all day, but since he was the only doctor at the Oblivion (and possibly all the zones) they had to work overtime. Their bedside manner suffered greatly, but they managed to get Quick Silver more stable and dress her wounds. All that was left was to transfuse blood because she had lost so much. But it turned out that Quick Silver had a fear of needles that almost rivaled Poison’s.

“Silver, please! They’re trying to help!” Cherry shouted from the doorway. She was being held by the shoulder by Ghoul. “They won’t hurt you!”

Quick Silver looked between Cherry and the doctor, huffing from the effort of her struggle. She was in no state to be fighting, she needed blood and soon. She heaved a great sigh, seeming to collapse in on herself as she slowly shifted back toward the doctor.

“Just- just don’t take too long,” she pleaded, holding out her arm shakily.

“We’ll be fast I promise,” the doctor assured, gently taking her arm.

Ghoul pulled Cherry back out to the lobby and then into the dining area where everyone else was. The window curtains were pulled and tied shut, keeping anyone from seeing in. The table was full of people, the other four kids eating quietly as they stared at the Killjoys at the table.

Cherry easily slipped from Ghoul’s grasp and ran to the table to sit next to one of the girls and started eating too. Poison was standing next to the doorway, surveying the room.

“This is fucking insane,” he said, staring at one of the boys. “There’s five of them.”

“Yeah,” Ghoul said, nodding. “More than I’ve even seen inside Battery City.”

“What are we going to do?” Poison sounded terrified. He had a right to be.

Kids are rare in the zones. Zoners have had kids before, but the usual protocol was to keep them hidden from BLI until they weren’t valuable anymore. Not to mention the fact that there wasn’t a proper doctor in the zones until the Oblivion opened which wasn’t too long ago, which meant that zoners would have to have natural births. Infant mortality was high, that wasn’t a question. Parent zoners and their babies either lived completely in secret until their kids were old enough to shoot and drive, or didn’t live at all. Or, on the off chance that someone had a kid too close to Bat City, dracs would steal the baby and take it to the city to be assigned a caretaker and further their own shitty legacy. Infant mortality in Battery City was also high, Poison knew that. People opted to get surgeries to live longer and buy companions rather than build families and have kids. The city did disgusting things to keep any amount of kids circulating through the city’s systems. 

None of them have ever seen this many kids together before. Poison recalled seeing one kid once while helping out a smaller gang in the southern areas of Zone 5. They were short, thin, and wrapped head to toe in brown cloth to hide their face from view. Poison may have gawked a little when he’d seen them. He couldn’t help it, there was a kid right there! A child! You just didn’t see them in the zones.

“I don’t know,” Ghoul answered, watching Cherry and the girl next to her giggle as they ate their food. “We have to keep them safe.”

“Well yeah, but…” Poison looked at him. “How? How are we going to keep five kids safe in the zones?”

“We’ll ask the expert,” Ghoul said, crossing his arms and leaning on the wall too. “Quick Silver has kept them safe in the Cannery for years, that’s what Cherry told me. So, we need to see if we can clear the Cannery again.”

“You know that won’t work, they found her there once,” Poison said, moving to stand in front of him. “If they realize their search team went missing a week ago, they’ll be all over that place.”

“However, it has been a week.” Ghoul raised a finger at him. “It’s been a week and there hasn’t been a second team sent.”

“True, but that could be due to the amount of dracs they lost in the first raid.”

“Maybe. I know you know more about Bat City than I do, but you were a home droid while I was a soldier.” Ghoul lowers his voice. “I know that they have more than just dracs. Sending dracs is like the first level of attack. They’re the ones you send to confirm your suspicions. The next thing you do is send me.”

Poison stared at him. Ghoul had told him some things about his past as a Bat City soldier before, on one of their late emotional nights on the Big Rock watching the stars. 

“Third and final level is a scarecrow.”

“Okay, so maybe they’re sending soldiers then,” Poison said, trying not to get distracted. “They still could have too little the man power. I mean, where are they?”

“They work differently,” Ghoul said, sighing uncomfortably. “They’d make sure their first sweep was undetected. I’d assume they’ve already mapped the Cannery.”

“So then we agree that the Cannery is unsafe?”

“No. Just because they mapped it doesn’t mean that we can’t clear it again.”

“That’s too much risk.”

“It’s an unknown risk, I’ll admit that. But we can take that risk ourselves before putting the kids back there.”

“What?” Poison blinked.

“We can clear the Cannery and stay there a while, make sure it’s out of BLI’s interest, and once we’re sure they’ve moved on we can get the kids back there to be kept safe.” Ghoul was staring past Poison, already making a plan.

“That sounds really dangerous,” Poison huffed, crossing his arms now too. “I don’t like that plan. What if they find us there and find out what we’ve been doing?”

“What do you mean?”

“Helping people!”

“You think they’ll care?”

“I think they would. I’ve heard countless things from Korse about how they strategically keep morale down in the zones, or at least try to. They don’t know a lot of things that go on out here but they do know that causing accidents and massacres keep the zone rats in their holes for a while.”

“Causing accidents?” Ghoul echoed absently, his eyes widening slightly.

“I think if they found out that there was a group of zoners that were helping people, acting like- like what Cherry said, super heroes, they would want to squash that the second they found it out.” Poison wasn’t paying attention. “We have to be more careful about what we do, it’s a fucking wonder we made it here in one piece.”

“Causing accidents…” Ghoul was lost in thought, eyebrows knit together, staring down at his feet.

“Poison,” Kobra called from the table. “Can you come here?”

Poison walked over and leaned over the table to see the map Kobra was looking at. It had all the zones generally marked and the major highways mapped out and was drawn on to show important areas such as the radio station and the Oblivion.

“Quick Silver said we shouldn’t take the kids to the radio station, but I think we at least need Dr. Death’s help on this,” Kobra said, picking up his mug of coffee. “We don’t know what we’re doing.”

“I was essentially just having that conversation with Ghoul,” Poison sighed. “I agree, I think we need his advice if nothing else.”

“I’ll call him.” Kobra stood from his chair, downed the rest of his coffee, and walked out of the dining hall.

Poison looked at each of the kids, counting their heads to make sure no one had left. Still five. He wondered if they all had names like Cherry did. 

“Alright,” he said, clapping once to get their attention. They looked scared for a moment, then curious. “I’d like to help us all keep you guys safe.”

The kids smiled, Cherry giving a huge toothy grin.

“And I want to start by learning each of your names. My name is Party Poison.” He looked at the kid closest to him, a skinny boy with brown hair, a band t-shirt, and ripped jeans. “What’s your name?”

“Echo,” the boy said, seemingly glad he’d been picked first.

“Good name,” Poison said, then pointing to the kid next to Echo. “What’s your name?”

“Rochester,” said the girl. She had bright blue eyes, short golden hair, and was wearing a tattered t-shirt that was so long it was a dress on her.

“Another good name.” Poison pointed to the kid next to Rochester which was Cherry. “I know your name, and it’s also a good name.”

“What’s my name?” Cherry asked, sitting up straight and putting her hands on her hips.

“Cherry.”

“Good.”

“What’s your name?” Poison asked the boy on the other side of the table, opposite Cherry. He was thin too, they all were, Poison realized.

“Aspen,” the boy said quietly.

“Yet another good name.” Poison looked to the last kid, a girl just a bit older than the others. She was the anomaly, Poison could tell straight away. Her hair was black, as black as Ghoul’s. He knew exactly where she was from and so did everyone else in the room. She wore jeans and a long sleeved shirt, no doubt the same reason Ghoul wore long sleeved shirts. “What’s your name?”

“York.” She looked at him with a hard gaze, a harder gaze than Poison expected from a child. He’d expect a look like that from Quick Silver- which made sense now, obviously. She was raising them.

“Good, strong names all around.” Poison looked them over again. This was going to be difficult, no matter what, but now that he knew their names it would at least be easier to keep track of them. “Now I want to play a game, if you’ll let me.”

Cherry was already bouncing in her seat, shaking Rochester’s arm excitedly. 

“It’s called twenty questions,” Poison said, glaring at Jet as he rolled his eyes. “I’ll ask one of you a question and then you get to ask me one. Sound fun?”

“Yes!” Cherry shouted as the other kids agreed with varying degrees of her excitement.

“Okay, so first, I want to start with…” Poison pursed his lips and looked around the table. He pointed to Cherry because she was so excited already. “You! How old are you?”

“I’m nine years old!” Cherry answered confidently, sitting up straight. “My turn! What’s your favorite color?”

“Red,” Poison answered, smiling. Good, simple, easy to answer questions. “Now, Rochester. When did you meet Quick Silver?”

Rochester looked up, surprised, then said slowly, “oh, um, I met her in the city… She protected me from the bad guys and took me to the Cannery to meet the other kids.”

“That was very nice of her, she’s a good person.” Poison noted that, the fact that Rochester seemed to be the newest addition. “You get to ask a question to me now.”

“Oh!” She looked down, thinking. “Are you human?”

Poison faltered. Shitfuckingdamn- He smiled and tried to look confused, saying, “why do you ask?”

“That’s not how the game works.” Rochester suddenly looked very serious. Aw fuck.

“Okay, no. I’m not,” Poison said, raising a hand. “I’m a droid from the city. I got out and found the other Killjoys and we started saving people together. People like the nice droids from the gas station and Quick Silver.”

“I knew it…” Rochester whispered, staring at her lap, her face excited.

“Okay,” Poison said, clearing his throat, attempting to distract the other kids from that. Why was that so awkward. “Echo, your turn.”

Echo was already staring at him.

“Did you pick your name?”

“No. None of us did.” Echo answered. “What kind of droid are you?”

Poison cringed. He couldn’t have this conversation. “I was a- a sort of, uh, housekeeper.”

“Sort of?”

“Not how the game works,” Poison said quickly, pulling Rochester’s card. “Aspen.”

He looked up from his food, startled.

“When did Quick Silver take you in?”

“She’s always had me…” Aspen answered timidly, clearly uncomfortable with the sudden attention. “I’m her biological son…”

Poison noted that Quick Silver and him shared the blonde hair and striking green eyes.

“Uh, I guess my question is… Why are you helping us?” Aspen stared back at Poison with an unsure gaze.

“Because,” Poison started heavily, “you kids are important. Battery City doesn’t like when kids are outside its borders and it isn’t safe for you there. Quick Silver knows how dangerous it is for kids and so do I. Quick Silver can only do so much, she’s only one person. We’re going to work together to keep you safe.”

Aspen seemed content with this answer, going back to his food with a small smile.

“Okay,” Poison took a breath. He hadn’t expected this to get heavy. “York.”

She stared at him defiantly. That gaze and posture seemed familiar. Poison thought for a moment about what he wanted to ask her. He still needed to know all their ages, but knowing Cherry was nine was a good indicator that most of them were around that age. York seemed a bit older than that, but he could ask Silver that later. He could ask where she’s from, since she seems to have a different demeanor than the other kids. Righteous, defiant, cautious. She reminded him a lot of himself. Perhaps he’ll rephrase the question…

“Where did Quick Silver find you?” Poison asked finally. York was different than the other kids, she was older and smarter. She knew what he meant when he asked that. She knew what he was doing, playing this game.

“She found me,” York started, sneering slightly, “in the wreckage of my dumbass mother’s car after she drove it into the gorge.”

Poison picked up on several things just then: first, York had lived in the zones probably most of her life, going off of her vocabulary alone. Second, at least her mother had been a total dick and tried to kill them both. Third, either her mother or father had brought her from Bat City, judging from the black hair and long sleeves.

“My turn,” she said, standing up to look him in the eye. “Why do Fun Ghoul and I have the same hair?”

Poison paled, looking quickly to Ghoul who was also pale, eyes wide.

“Well?” York looked at Ghoul. “Why do we have the same hair?”

“Well,” Poison said slowly. “You guys come from the same… Uh… You had the same…”

York could carve through his skull with her gaze.

“Ghoul is from Battery City too. And you’re also…”

“People from Battery City have black hair?” York’s questions burned behind her eyes. She was on a mission, that was clear as day.

“Only one question per-”

“Shut up, game’s over, answer me.” York walked around the table to stand in front of him. 

“Yes,” Ghoul answered, walking around the table. “People born from the original ancestors that founded Battery City have naturally black hair.”

York stared at him as he walked up to them.

“They’re considered important people, part of a sort of hierarchy within the city.” Ghoul put a hand on her shoulder. “They’re popular, have lots of people wanting to be their friend.”

“Then why-” York started, but Ghoul gripped her shoulder tighter.

“Because.” Ghoul’s tone was sharp like York’s had been only moments ago. “Because the city uses you. Your hair makes you a target. People murder Ravenheads in the city slums. It’s not all fun and games.”

York gulped, suddenly quiet.

“Also,” Ghoul leaned down to be at her level, eyes boring into her head. “Don’t ever talk to Poison like that again. You’ll get in trouble with me. Got it?”

She nodded once, he nodded back, and then he left the room.

The tension left behind was turned to awkwardness as Poison ran after him. Aspen took a slightly too-loud sip of his water and everyone tried to pretend it was the most interesting thing in the room.

Poison found Ghoul pacing in the lobby. For once there wasn’t a nurse at the front desk, they were probably busy with Quick Silver and the droids.

“Ghoul,” Poison said, walking up and stopping him from pacing again.

“I’m sorry, she’s just a kid, I overreacted-” Ghoul was blabbering, stammering, still clearly angry and upset that he was.  
Poison hugged him.

“She was just being so- disrespectful!” Ghoul raised his voice a bit, hugging Poison tightly. “Like finding out you were a droid made it okay to bombard you with questions, asking about shit she doesn’t understand!”

“Ghoul, she probably didn’t get any information from her parents about it,” Poison offered, combing his fingers through Ghoul’s hair. “I know it’s morbid, but it almost seems like her mom could have been trying to protect her from the city, trying to kill them like that.”

“Fuck, I hope not.” Ghoul hid his face in Poison’s shoulder. “I hope she was just an asshole who liked thrills. What you said is scary.”

“Sorry.”

They stood a while, hugging each other tightly. Poison had actually been scared of York for a moment there. She’d certainly learned how to look and sound scary from Quick Silver. 

“I’m sorry,” Ghoul said softly, calmer now.

“You shouldn’t be, she was kind of being a dick,” Poison said, and Ghoul chuckled.

“Must be a thing with Ravenheads,” he said. He turned his head to press a quick kiss to Poison’s jaw before pulling back from their hug. “I’m okay now.”

“Good.” Poison ruffled his hair. “Now let’s go act like adults again.”

* * *

Quick Silver was recovering pretty quickly, though her injuries weren’t anything like what they’ve been used to. It wasn’t a gunshot, it was JUST a gunshot. It wasn’t a concussion, it was JUST a concussion. When the doctor was satisfied with her stability he let the kids stay in her room.

“Are you okay?” Cherry asked, hopping onto the hospital bed to snuggle next to her.

“I am,” Silver said, tucking Cherry under her arm. She looked at York with disapproval. “I heard you were quite rude to one of the Killjoys.”

York stared at her shoes.

“York.”

She looked up, face set and neutral.

“Say you’re sorry to him. That was no way to speak to him.”

York turned to look sideways at Poison, who was almost acting as a guard for the room, standing next to the door against the wall.

“York.” Quick Silver’s tone got sharp.

“I’m sorry, Party Poison,” York said quickly, looking back down at her shoes. “I shouldn’t have talked to you like that.”

“Thank you for apologizing,” Poison said. “I appreciate it.”

York mumbled something under her breath, but went and sat on the couch without another word to anyone. She was a piece of work. 

“Silver, I made you this…” Aspen said quietly, getting up from his chair and stepping slowly up to the bed. He held out a small piece of paper to Silver, who gladly took it.

“Thank you sweetie,” she said, opening the paper and smiling. “It’s gorgeous, honey.”

Aspen smiled wide, bouncing on his feet a bit.

“I like the blood!” Cherry said, peeking to see the picture.

Poison tried not to react to the idea of a child drawing some bloody picture of something and their caretaker being proud of it. He had a lot of assumptions, he realized. He didn’t know anything about kids.

“Will you draw me something?” Rochester asked suddenly, looking hopeful.

“Sure!” Aspen was glowing from the praise. He plopped back into his chair and pulled out a fresh page of paper.

Eventually it was bedtime, and the kids were allowed to sleep in the room with Quick Silver. The Killjoys, not knowing of much else to do, stood guard. Kobra had told them that Dr. D was going to be there the next day, he was having issues with his wheelchair and couldn’t find his repair kit. 

Poison stood in the hall, in front of Quick Silver’s door, like a bouncer at a Nest party. Ghoul was at the end of the hall, watching the lobby as the last nurse clocked out to go sleep. Kobra was asleep, per Poison’s orders because of his horrible anxiety all day. Jet was running a short route through the Oblivion, checking the doctor’s room and all the nurse’s quarters. 

They finally got to pay back the doctor and the nurses with a bit of peace of mind. With all the new patients and business, the doctor was a bit nervous. Rightfully. Poison knew that if people knew how many valuable “items” were in the building, it would already be on fire. Luckily, they’d managed to run quite the secret project so far. 

Poison spent most of the night thinking. He was thinking a lot lately, about all kinds of things. He was thinking in circles, getting more and more tired. He stared down the hall at Ghoul’s back and his eyes drifted down. 

“Ghoul,” Poison said quietly.

“What?” He turned around to look over his shoulder.

“You’ve got a nice butt.”

“I know, thanks.” Ghoul turned back around with a chuckle.

Poison nodded, very tired and satisfied with that answer.

And when it reached the point where Poison was finding himself with his eyes closed, he decided to call it a night. He walked down the hall and patted Ghoul’s shoulder.

“Bed time, I think,” he said.

“God, I hope so,” Ghoul said through a yawn. “I’m fuckin’ beat.”

“Standing is so boring,” Poison said, walking to the rooms with his arm around Ghoul’s shoulders.

“Standing in the dark is like playing passing out chicken,” Ghoul mumbled.

“What?”

“Y’know, like- like if you were to like, stand in the dark at night, when you’re tired, and you’re trying to stay awake-”

“Don’t you play chicken with another person?”

“Yeah, but… It doesn’t matter. I was going to pass out if I had to stand there another hour.” Ghoul tugged Poison into his room tiredly. “Let’s just go to sleep.”

“Okay,” Poison laughed.

* * *

Ghoul was secretly the biggest snuggler in the Killjoys. And up against Show Pony, that was saying something. Poison let himself be held tight in bed while he watched the sun rise. Everyone was still asleep.

Ghoul had had nightmares the previous night, the first in a while according to Poison’s memory. The last one he’d had was during Poison’s recovery, when things were still rocky. The previous night, his dreams had been full of glittering blood again and he had been terrified, waking up in a haze and pulling Poison’s shirt up to make sure his guts were still where they should be. Then, he hugged him tight and still hadn’t let go.

Poison watched the clouds out the window, suddenly brought back to a memory of a place he hated, a man he hated, a city he hated, a black sky he hated. But as he watched the clouds, the puffy white ones that dragged through the early golden sky, he smiled. Those memories faded away. He reminded himself that he would never end up there again.

“Mm,” Ghoul groaned, stirring from behind him.

Poison shifted, prompting Ghoul to tighten his hold but managed to twist around to face him and hug him back.

“Mwhuttime,” Ghoul mumbled against Poison’s chest.

“Too early, go back to sleep,” Poison said softly into his hair.

He listened, easily falling back asleep and even snoring quietly. Poison loved him.

Oh fuck, and that thought just fucking ground the moment to a halt. What? Love? Did he know how to do that?! What the fuck did that mean?! Love?! Shit, he was terrified now, mostly because old habits die hard and he’s thinking at lightning speed right now trying to rationalize and define “love” within his programming. Fuck, he hadn’t done this in forever, was there even a definition for it? He’d find it if he searched long enough, he was convinced. When he came up empty, literally at the end of his coding, he panicked. Where was love? Where did he learn that word? He had to have learned it, he knew it! Fuck!

All of this was happening silently, though. Poison’s eyes were wide, staring at the wall, his face was neutral otherwise. He was terrified inside, but tried not to seem so on the outside. Ghoul continued to sleep soundly until the sun was high enough to stream through their window, casting bright desert light over their faces. Well, Poison’s face. Ghoul had his tucked into Poison’s neck.

“Boys,” called Dr. Death from the hallway suddenly, knocking lightly on their door. “You up yet?”

Poison considered not answering, pretending he was asleep and keeping Ghoul tucked against him. But then he remembered the kids, the pressing issue of their protection, and the fact that he really needed a distraction from this whole love nonsense.

He carefully moved from Ghoul’s side and stood, opening the door quietly and stepping into the hall.

“Hey,” Poison said, hushed still, and gave Dr. D a hug.

“Hey there, team leader,” he joked, patting Poison’s back roughly. “Sorry to get you up so early, but I figured the situation could excuse that.”

“Yeah it’s fine.” Poison had no idea what time it was. To be truthful, he hadn’t slept very much. Coffee affected him now, which meant he was drinking it like he needed it to live. He used to be able to stay up for days without needing to “sleep” but now he had to sleep for eight hours a night. Not that he got that much sleep. It was strange, and he couldn’t tell if he was doing it to himself, but he never got more than four hours of sleep every night. 

“I was hoping I could meet this woman, Quick Silver,” Dr. D said. “She takes care of the kids, right?”

“Yeah,” Poison started walking with him, trying to ignore his brain and the tingling in his right leg. “From what I’ve gathered from the kids, she saved all of them, except for Aspen. He’s her biological son.”

“Okay, interesting…” Dr. D wheeled slightly behind Poison, following him to Silver’s room. “The kids have pretty unusual names for zoners. That could end up being an issue.”

“Yeah, I know,” Poison said. They reached the door to Silver’s room and stopped. “The kids are all in there, too, sleeping.”

“Just crack the door a bit, I need to see about something…” Dr. D rolled up to the door as Poison opened it slightly. “Hm. Okay.”

Poison shut the door and eyed Dr. D with a raised eyebrow.

“Just making sure I don’t know her,” he explained. “The kids look healthy, if not a bit skinny.”

“I noticed that too,” Poison said, walking back the way they’d come. “I don’t think the Oblivion has the stock to feed all of them. They were better off in the Cannery, tons of stocked canned food there.”

“We should look into that, getting some of that food out of there and in some Killjoy reserves.” Dr. D was thinking aloud. Food was not a super rare thing in the zones, but canned food was something of a valuable commodity. It kept longer than anything else. Plus, growing food in the zones was almost impossible without mulch, which, unfortunately, WAS rare in the zones. So a Cannery full of stocks of canned food was pretty fucking valuable to just be sitting alone and unprotected. Even Battery City would know about how important canned food was. If they found it, they would probably burn it. “We need to get back to the Cannery before the city can do anything with that canned food.”

“I’ll talk to Jet about it,” Poison said, nodding. They got back to Poison and Ghoul’s room and Dr. D stopped Poison from going back just yet.

“I gotta ask something,” he said quietly, looking through the opened door to where Ghoul was snoring, quite loudly now. “Are you and him…?”

“What?” Poison stared, thanking Destroya that he could switch his brain to manual and stop himself from blushing up a storm.

Dr. D eyed him for a long moment before saying, “careful.”

Poison froze for a moment, confused to all hell. What did that mean?

“You’re both…” Dr. D pursed his lips. “Well, you’ll figure it out.”

“What?” Poison said, serious now. “Figure what out? We’re both what?”

“Shh.” Dr. Death pointed to Ghoul, who was shifting and no longer snoring. “You’re both fragile. Be careful with one another.”

Fragile? Poison scoffed internally. Maybe Ghoul was made of flesh and bone, but Poison wasn’t fragile. And a small part of his brain was screaming “THAT’S NOT WHAT HE MEANS!” but Poison was pointedly ignoring that in favor of going back to laying down with Ghoul.

Fragile. Seriously.

* * *

They hadn’t shared a dream in a while. Poison didn’t even realize he was asleep until Ghoul was making clouds out of his cold breath. It was never cold, so Poison realized he was dreaming.

“Do you want to make some?” Ghoul asked, blowing out another cloud and tossing it up into the sky. “It’s pretty easy.”

Poison opened his mouth to say something but found himself to be a rock, so he said nothing with no mouth and sat still. 

“Oh no,” Ghoul tutted, walking over and picking him up. “Why are you a rock?”

I’m not fragile, Poison thought sternly.

Dr. Death’s face formed in the clouds.

“What’s wrong?” Ghoul sat down on a rug that wasn’t there before. The space they were in was white again, no desert or trees or rose bushes. “What did Death say?”

I’m NOT fragile, Poison thought harder, and Ghoul sighed.

“I know you aren’t, clearly I can see you’re a rock. Rocks don’t break easily, of course you’re not fragile.”

Poison would have nodded in agreement if he had a head to nod.

“Did Death say you were?”

Poison was silent, since he was a rock.

“I see.”

The clouds rolled over them and twisted together, glad to exist.

“Well, I’m not sure he meant your body.” Ghoul set Poison down on the ground. “Please stop being a rock.”

Poison wasn’t a rock anymore. He was himself, and he curled his arms and legs around Ghoul, hugging him and pouting.

“Why did he say that to you?” Ghoul hugged back, looping his arms loosely around Poison’s back.

“He said to be careful with one another,” Poison answered, feeling something tickle his throat as he spoke. He coughed roughly and spit up a fortune cookie. As he reached to pick it up, it grew little crab legs and scuttled away. “Said that we were both fragile.”

“I’ll be careful with you,” Ghoul said, gently tugging Poison away from him to kiss him. Poison pulled away quickly.

“I just coughed up a fortune cookie crab, don’t kiss me right now,” Poison said hurriedly, wiping Ghoul’s mouth.

Ghoul just laughed, hugging him again.

“I didn’t even get to know the fortune.” Poison watched the crab dig into the ground and disappear.

“Maybe you weren’t meant to know.” Ghoul rubbed slow circles into his back. “Maybe it didn’t want you to know.”

“That’s nice of it,” Poison said tiredly. Was it possible to be tired in a dream?

“Are you okay?” Ghoul asked suddenly.

“What?”

“Are you okay?” Ghoul repeated, pulling away. “Why are you tired?”

“I’m not sure,” Poison said through a yawn. “But it’s okay. Don’t worry, please.”

Ghoul watched him a while, then nodded once and hugged him again.

Poison wasn’t sure it was okay, Ghoul knew that. But Poison being tired in a dream wasn’t all that strange, considering what else they could be in a dream.

“Have you been sleeping well?” Ghoul asked it like it was a summer afternoon and they were having lunch outside a bakery, watching the city traffic go by. Like it was only a question.

“No.” Poison had decided to answer truthfully because Ghoul would know if he lied.

“I know.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“It is,” Poison insisted, leaning back from their hug. “I’ve been making myself stay up, it’s a very bad thing and it’s all my fault.”

Ghoul watched him talk, not changing his face at all. Poison loved that about him, he lo-

“It’s a big problem and I need your help with it,” Poison said loudly, shoving everything else away and tucking his face in Ghoul’s neck. “I need you to help me sleep.”

“Okay.” Ghoul held him tight and they stayed there a while. In their dream, they could stay for an eternity. They could feel the sun burn out above them and the ground break apart beneath them, watch the stars burn out and condense as the universe imploded and then exploded into a new one, creating another planet just like theirs and recreating the sun and the earth and the moon and the stars.

Then they woke up.

* * *

The plan was (sort of) simple: they would assemble a team to secure the Cannery, do that, take the kids back there, and keep them safe until they could figure out what else to do. Quick Silver was happy to hear this plan, telling them they were safest in the Cannery because of the winding halls and huge stocks of food. But something felt wrong with that plan, the feeling dripped down Poison’s heart and made his stomach uneasy. The thought of keeping the kids there until they grew old enough to be out of BLI’s interest was so dismal to Poison, but he said nothing.

The Oblivion couldn’t keep them there and fed for very long, so the Killjoys got to work right away. 

“Okay, so,” Dr. Death started, clapping his hands. The Killjoys had moved to the lobby where they could figure out the details of their plan, rather than at the breakfast table in front of the kids. “We need to secure the Cannery.”

“Established that,” Ghoul grumbled, leaning on Poison’s shoulder tiredly. The Oblivion was low on coffee, so they were conserving it for the medical staff, which meant the Killjoys didn’t get any.

“Cutting to the chase here, the issue is personnel.” Dr. Death ignored Ghoul. “We don’t have enough of us to do that.”

“What do you mean?” Poison asked, looking around the room. “The four of us could do it easily.”

“That’s not the problem, yes the four of you could handle it, but then who stays and watches Silver and the kids?”

They all made frustrated noises.

“Exactly. We can’t all just leave them and the Oblivion unattended. We need outside help.”

“We can’t ask that of the other gangs,” Poison said quickly. “What if something bad happens?”

“Something worse will happen if we don’t get control of that food stock, trust me.”

“But if things get bad people could die.”

“The kids could be found if we don’t get them back to that building.”

Poison was torn. He didn’t even want them to go back there anyway! He couldn’t place why just yet, but he’d think about it. Asking zoners to put themselves in danger to help the Killjoys was kind of the opposite of what Poison had wanted the Killjoys to be, too. So, that coupled with shoving the kids in a big dark building until they were old enough to fire a blaster was too much for Poison to accept. But he knew that the risk of keeping the kids at the Oblivion was too high. If BLI found the kids there, they would find the doctor and the nurses, and that was unacceptable. The only doctor in the zones had to be kept safe, too. Poison kept quiet, lowering his head and surprising the others.

“Jet, get in contact with the Sisters about helping us on this,” Dr. D said.

“Wait, not the sisters,” Kobra said, holding up a hand. “We have something we have to-”

“Well, sort it out,” Dr. Death interrupted. “We need their cars and know-how, whatever beef you have with them, get it sorted out and over with.”

Kobra shut his mouth and nodded once.

“I’ll visit them,” Jet said quietly, feeling Kobra’s apprehension as well.

“Good. Kobra, go with him.” Dr. D looked to Poison and Ghoul. “You two will stay here with the kids and Silver.”

“Are you staying?” Poison asked, not wanting to argue right now.

“No, I’m going back to the station to make sure Show Pony hasn’t had a breakdown by themself. You all can handle this, okay? Radio me if something happens.”

So, Jet and Kobra set off to the Sisters’ clubhouse to, among other things, rally some troops. Dr. Death drove the van back to the radio station, promising to return with supplies the next day. Which left Poison and Ghoul on guard duty at the Oblivion. They had time now to form a plan B if they needed one, as well as getting to know more about the kids and Quick Silver.

* * *

Jet was bouncing his knee as Kobra drove them to the Sisters’ clubhouse. Since the last time the Killjoys had seen them, the Sisters had supposedly robbed the Zone 2 outpost twice. Before they asked them for help, they’d have to address that with them. Kobra tried to convince Jet to just pretend like nothing had happened and just ask for their help, but Jet had reminded him that nothing good could come from not addressing it. Poison would have their heads, if nothing else. So, they agreed to talk to them about it and figure out what that was about before mentioning the kids. 

The drive to the Sisters’ clubhouse was quiet, mostly because Jet didn’t trust that they weren’t being followed. There were no black birds, though, so they tried not to be too paranoid. The desert had been mostly quiet since the crash in the gorge. Kobra almost missed the noise. It used to be that hordes of dracs would routinely scout areas for zoners or pick through abandoned buildings to look for whatever BLI told them to look for, but since the crash the desert had gone silent. It scared Kobra more than it comforted him, but he was trying not to let it get to him. The work the Killjoys were doing to create a web of support throughout the zones was the perfect situation for BLI to do something to ruin the entire thing and sometimes it was all Kobra could think about. It was why he tended to be more cautious when going to follow a distress signal. He was waiting for the day that BLI had one of their radios tuned to the Killjoys’ station held in a scarecrow’s hand. Truthfully, Kobra feared that Korse would come back for Poison. 

Jet noticed Kobra was spinning out in his head, staring out the window.

“Kid,” Jet said, nudging Kobra’s leg, making him jump. “We’re here.”

“Sorry,” Kobra said, shaking his head.

“Don’t worry about it, let’s go talk to the Sisters.” Jet got out of the car and looked at the Sisters’ clubhouse. It was a huge garage and there were cars everywhere, scattered shells of cars further out and refurbished, supped up racing cars near and inside the huge garage door. The Sisters’ insignia was spray painted on the building everywhere, clearly signaling their strength and boldness.

“Jet Star and the Kobra Kid!” Betty Bazooka said, bounding out of the opened garage door with open arms. “It’s good to see you two! Where’s Fuck You and the bitch?”

Jet and Kobra chuckled at that, then righted themselves, putting serious faces back on.

“Betty,” Jet started, making no move to accept her hug or get closer to the clubhouse. “I don’t want this to sound accusatory, but… Have you or any of the other Sisters raided the Zone 2 outpost in the last few months?”

Betty noticed their body language and stiffened herself. She put a hand on her hip and stood tall.

“The Zone 2 outpost? I remember having quite a good relationship with the owner out there, so I don’t think I personally would have authorized a raid. Why?” Betty was equally the nicest and the scariest of the Sisters.

“The owner drew out the symbol that he saw on the women who raided the-”

“Women? He’s sure it was women?” Betty asked, her eyebrows shooting up.

“He said he was fairly sure. And he drew the symbol, and it was- well,” Jet wrung his hands. “It was Roadrunner’s.”

“What?” Betty looked furious for a moment, then contemplative. Then, suddenly, she looked furious again. “Oh I’m going to fucking kill her.”

Betty spun around and ran back into the garage. Jet and Kobra hesitated a moment before following her. They started hearing shouting and followed it to where Betty had thrown Roadrunner up against a wall and was screaming at her.

“We had a good record with that guy! The Killjoys agreed to keep him safe! Now who are they keeping him safe from? Us?! Fuck, Roadrunner, what were you thinking!? How are we supposed to come back from that?! How long ago did you do that?! Can we even make up for it at this point!? Jet said months ago!”

Roadrunner couldn’t get a word in, so she kept her mouth shut and let her girlfriend repeatedly shover her against the wall.

“Betty,” Kobra said, reaching out a hand.

“I’m the fucking leader of this gang and if you go over my head like that just because you’re my girlfriend I’m going to throw you over Dead Man’s Drop!” Betty shouted, practically frothing at the mouth. “That’s abuse of power, and I think that’s enough to demote you, fucker!”

“Betty.” Roadrunner said loudly. “Please calm down.”

“Shut the fuck up! You’re back on perimeter watch!” Betty threw Roadrunner to the ground then, straightening her jacket and sneering down at her girlfriend. “Who else was with you?”

“What?” Roadrunner looked up at her.

“Who else? Who did you rope into your stupid power grab? Jet made it sound like there was more than one raider.” Betty looked to Jet then.

“The owner said there were two.” Jet wasn’t in the business of getting beat up by Betty.

“So who did you take with you?” Betty stepped down on Roadrunner’s ankle, making her pull at it lightly. “If you don’t tell me who it was, everyone gets half rations until they tell the tru-”

“It was me!” Honey shouted from behind her car, standing up fast. 

The room got silent before it was filled with the sound of Betty beating the shit out of Roadrunner and the other Sisters rushing to split them up.

“You bitch!” Betty screamed. “Getting Honey into trouble like this, you should be fucking dragged through the desert by the back of my car!”

Jet and Korba had aided in their separation by then, Jet holding Betty back by her midsection and Kobra standing between them while the Sisters got Roadrunner off the ground.

The scene was chaos for a while, Betty was still screaming and thrashing in Jet’s arms. Honey had stood dutifully by until Betty had calmed down enough to be let go, then she ran over and started trying to explain herself. Betty waved her off and turned to Jet and Kobra.

“Tell the owner that this will never happen again and that the Sisters will stay out of Zone 2 as much as possible until he sees fit.” Betty was all business now, fixing her clothes and clearing her throat. “Was there anything else you needed from us?”

“We actually needed to ask a pretty huge favor,” Jet said quietly, looking to where Ghetta and Sora were tending to Roadrunner. “We have some sensitive packages that need to be kept safe, and we have a building that needs swept for BLI.”

“The Transistor Sisters would be happy to help with anything the Killjoys need of us.” Betty kept her face stony and calm. “Where is it?”

“It’s north-west in Zone 5,” Kobra said.

“What?!” Betty’s resolve broke for only a moment, then she was back to looking professional. “I mean- will you be supplying gas and rations?”

“Yes.” Kobra nodded. Jet tried not to look guilty. That was a fucking empty promise. They didn’t have gas or food to give them.

“Then the Sisters will be happy to make the trek. Who will go with us?”

“We will, me and Kobra.”

“Alright, radio us when we’re needed and we’ll be ready within the hour.” Betty nodded to them and waved them out the garage door.

As they left, Betty shut the garage door forcefully, and Jet worried that they’d just weakened their team beyond repair. Korba felt somewhat good about this development but kept it to himself. To him, if the zoners caused their own internal conflict, it kept BLI from causing external conflict. It was a good thing in the long-run, basically. Plus, they needed to keep BLI’s interest away from the kids as much as possible.

* * *

Poison was sure that if they could have died from boredom, they would have already. Ghoul was fucking asleep. It had been hours since everyone left and the desert was still quiet. They had made a routine early on, checking in periodically on the kids and the doctor, but eventually it got boring and everyone agreed that they were okay to take a break. So they were taking a break. Ghoul didn’t snore exactly, but sometimes he would make this low gurgling that worried Poison because wow it sounded like he was drowning in his own spit. He seemed okay though, so eventually it was easy for Poison to ignore it.

Poison has busied himself by routinely checking the radios for updates from Dr. Death. So far he’s learned about a couple new songs and listened to another episode of the new radio drama by the Gallons. It was pretty interesting; there was a detective who met a woman with two heads and they were both working together to solve the mystery of the woman’s husband’s murder. It was a pretty creative story, but it only came out once a week so Poison had to wait to find out what happened next.

So, now, he had nothing to do. As they sat in the lobby, waiting for something to happen, Poison looked to Ghoul and watched his chest rise and fall in his sleep.

But soon Poison had something to do, and it was talk to Cherry who had just skipped into the room from the hall. She saw Ghoul was asleep and froze, then began to tiptoe over to Poison with a small smile on her face. 

“What’s up?” Poison whispered.

“I wanted to see what you two were doing!” Cherry whispered back excitedly. “I’m bored!”

“I’m bored too,” Poison sighed. “What do you want to do?”

“I want to go for a walk!” Cherry grabbed Poison’s hand and tugged gently.

Poison grimaced. He couldn’t do that. If they set foot outside the chances that BLI would find them and the rest of the kids skyrocketed.

“Please?” Cherry pouted, sticking out bottom lip out and staring up at Poison. “Just for a little bit?”

“I don’t know, Cherry…” Poison felt almost powerless against the look she was giving him. “… Okay, fine, but just for a minute.”

“Yay!” Cherry squealed quietly and tried not to bounce around too much.

Poison carefully lifted Ghoul’s head off his lap and moved him so he could stand up. Then, he took Cherry’s hand and they walked toward the back of the building. Cherry was skipping, excited to go for a walk for once and actually feeling safe. 

Before they left the building, Poison stopped Cherry at the door and knelt down in front of her, pulling his mask over his eyes.

“Okay, before we go outside, you have to put this on,” he said, and held out a yellow ribbon with eye holes cut out of it. “It’ll protect your identity.”

“Like a superhero,” Cherry whispered in wonder, her eyes wide. She took the ribbon, tied it around her eyes, and smiled wide at Poison.

“Exactly.” Poison stood and took her hand, then opened the back door that led to the desert behind the Oblivion.

Poison had kept a walkie talkie on his hip just in case he needed it, along with his blaster. Cherry was skipping alongside him as they walked around outside.

As they walked further from the Oblivion, Poison checked more and more for blackbirds, not eager to find one watching them. Though, things were still eerily silent. So, they kept walking. Cherry asked what types of plants were around and Poison had no idea, so they gave them names. If brought back memories of his dreams with Ghoul, where they would give things names without knowing why. 

The less that happened the more Poison got restless and jumpy. Cherry almost let go of Poison’s hand at one point and he gripped her hand so tight that she asked (very politely) if he could stop. He was getting nervous, which should have been the signal that he was right to be. 

There was something that was well-known in the zones, like a lot of things. It was something that was understood the moment you were foolish enough to ignore it the first time. It was something Poison had been on the other end of. And it was this: if you see a blackbird, you have seventeen seconds to get gone, or you get ghosted. It was always one of BLI’s many ways to clear out an area, if not from seeing the blackbird alone. They’d used poisonous gas bombs before, teargas, EMPs, C4- anything that they could fire from the city and explode in the zones in at least seventeen seconds.

So, when Poison saw a blackbird fly over them from behind him, he didn’t even need to think before scooping up Cherry in his arms, tuning his walkie talkie to the emergency channel, and screaming for any kind of help. Cherry covered her mouth with both her hands, knowing that if she made any noise BLI would know she was a child. The blackbirds didn’t have cameras, but they did have microphones. No, it was the cats that had cameras.

“Ghoul! Wake up!” Poison shouted into the walkie talkie. “Clear the building! Blackbird!”

He had to have faith and trust that he’d heard him. He ran with Cherry, her small legs locked around his torso and her arms tightly wound around his neck. She was terrified. 

Poison was running but he didn’t know where. He couldn’t go back to the Oblivion because the rest of the kids and the only doctor in the zones was there. It was morbidly unfortunate that he just had to keep running away since it was either all the kids and half the Killjoys, or just one kid and one Killjoy. It was the least amount of losses, but it felt different when you were one of the losses. Poison didn’t feel great about having to die today. He felt even worse that Cherry was with him.

It had been ten seconds since he had started running, and Poison could hear whatever they’d dropped whizzing through the air toward them. Maybe they’d anticipated where they’d run, Poison thought to himself.

Twelve seconds, the flying missile of some sort was louder, almost sounding like a rocket.

Fourteen seconds, Poison stopped running and curled over Cherry to protect her as best he could with his body.

Seventeen seconds, Ghoul heard an explosion out in the desert behind the Oblivion. 

He’d managed to get the kids into the trans am and drive as far away from the Oblivion as possible while the doctor and the nurses promised they were prepared to hide. Silver hadn’t been at all happy about letting Ghoul take the kids by himself, but she had no choice but to stay, she was still technically recovering and wouldn’t be of much help with Ghoul.

“Fuck,” Ghoul muttered, looking at the smoke in his rear view mirror.

One of the kids in the back snorted as his profanity, but York, who was sat in the front seat next to Ghoul, was staring at the smoke too.

“We have to go get them,” York said, still watching the smoke.

“We can’t,” Ghoul said reluctantly. “Not until the smoke clears.”

“Why?” York’s question burned in her eyes as she turned to him.

“They’ll be picking the area in no time.”

“Then we have to be there first!” York slammed her fist on the dashboard. “Cherry was with him!”

“Shh!” Ghoul shushed her sharply. “It’s too dangerous, if we get there at the same time they’ll find all of you and then it’s over!”

York blinked, then looked more like Quick Silver than Ghoul had ever seen. Her face turned viciously stern, her black hair framing her face to make her look almost like Ghoul’s own mother had many many years ago.

“Turn the car around. Right now.” York’s tone left no room for argument, and Ghoul actually found himself scared of her. Maybe she’d learned too much from his intimidation tactics. “My sister is out there about to be packed into a bag and shipped off to hell, and your boyfriend is going to either be sent back to hell too, or dropped in a dumpster somewhere!”

Ghoul did as she said, though he felt weird about the fact that she’d called Poison his boyfriend. He didn’t want to think about that right now. Least of all did he want to think about the fact that BLI might send him back to Korse.

They drove fast, Ghoul worried they’d already missed the mark and would be too late. York watched the smoke as they got closer and closer to its source. Ghoul was slightly relieved to find that whatever they’d dropped hadn’t been explosives, thought it was still some sort of gas and it had still exploded in one way or another.

York sat up in her seat as they got closer to the other thing they’d seen, which was two bodies lying on the desert floor, smoking slightly from the explosion so close to them, but clearly not dead.

“Holy shit,” Ghoul muttered as he slammed on the breaks. “Stay in the car, all of you. If you see a cat- fuck, if you see a cat it’s over. If you see another blackbird, lay on the horn but don’t say anything.”

York nodded once and positioned herself so that she could easily press the horn if she had to while the other kids gathered around the windows to watch to cats and birds.

Ghoul climbed out of the car and raced to Poison and Cherry. He grabbed Cherry first and got her in the back seat of the car with the other kids. When he turned back to Poison he had woken up slightly.

“Shit-” Poison coughed as he tried to speak. His back was black from the explosion and his face was covered in dirt and dust. “Ghoul?”

“Shut up,” Ghoul said, quickly gathering Poison up to get into the car too. “We don’t have time for this.”

Poison nodded absently as he was shoved into the passenger seat after York climbed around to the back seats.

Once Ghoul was back in the front, he sped off back toward the road that went past the Oblivion again. As they passed it, they saw the van starting up and driving out behind them. Ghoul pointed to the radio and Poison didn’t need instructions to turn it to the emergency channel.

“…out to any Killjoys listening, please respond,” Dr. D’s voice filled the car. “We have incoming zoners in need of a safe place to hide, do not return to base. Get whatever precious cargo you have out, and fast.”

Poison grabbed his walkie talkie and pressed the talk button twice, still not trusting that they weren’t being listened to.

“Thank christ,” Dr. D said over the radio, just before the channel went dead.

They drove for a long time before anyone spoke. Ghoul eventually dropped his shoulders, letting himself be comfortable with the fact that they probably were safe to make noise. Cherry eventually came to as her siblings tended to her cuts and scrapes.

“What was in that thing?” Ghoul asked quietly. Poison was still very out of it, and it was making Ghoul nervous.

“Uh, some sort of,” Poison started, blinking slowly. “Gas.”

“Yeah, I got that. It didn’t seem to bother me or Cherry.” Ghoul’s gaze flickered to him quickly.

“Yeah,” Poison said absently. “I think, um. I think you need to stop. Driving. I need something. From my room.”

“What?”

“My head. Uh, I need to get something really fast.” Poison grabbed the door handle, still staring off into space.

“P, stop, we don’t have time to stop!” Ghoul hit the locks on the doors.

“I need to get out of the car, please.” Poison’s left hand jerked up suddenly. “Ghoul, unlock the doors, please.”

“Why?! You’re freaking me out!”

“Ghoul, you’re about to be in danger, please let me out,” Poison said pleadingly while watching his left hand twitch. “That gas, uh. I think it. I think it had something bad in it.”

“No shit!” Ghoul’s heart twisted as he unlocked the doors. “Are you going to be okay?”

“N- I don’t know. If I can find a Respite I will be.”

“A what?”

Poison didn’t answer before he threw himself from the car, startling the kids and making Cherry scream out. Ghoul reached across the seat and pulled the door shut. He grabbed his own walkie talkie and tuned it to the emergency channel.

“Killjoy down, Dr. D, we need someone out by Feral Lanes and Eastpike, now!” Ghoul shouted into the walkie talkie, ignoring the kids in the back shouting at him. 

“Killjoy down?!” Show Pony’s voice responded over the channel, making Ghoul hate himself even more. “Feral Lanes and- Ghoul, what’s happening?!”

“I don’t know, whatever they dropped on him is messing with his head. He said he needs a Respite, whatever that is.”

“Oh fuck,” Show Pony shouted something down the hall to Dr. D. “I’m on my way, keep moving.”

“Wasn’t planning on stopping,” Ghoul sighed, setting the walkie talkie down.

“Where are we going?” York asked, climbing back into the passenger seat.

“The gorge,” Ghoul said, deciding that would be a good place to literally hide in the shadows.

“That’s really far,” York said, glancing behind them in the rear view mirror. “Are we going to be able to make it there?”

“We have to.”

York stared ahead of them at the road. The van behind them, the doctor, nurses, and presumably Silver, had turned just before they lost Poison. They had to take the more roundabout way to the radio tower, it was safer, even if a bit out of their way. They could see the radio tower to their right as they slowly passed it. Cherry had recovered quite fast, though was still a bit dizzy. Ghoul tried not to let his heart break as he finally noticed the yellow ribbon tied around her face. Poison had protected her.

The reason going out of your way in the zones was safer than going straight to somewhere was that BLI watched the major highways that weaved around the city. There was one that came up from the south, cutting straight through the zones from Dead Man’s Drop and splitting into two separate highways as it wound around Bat City. Those major highways, the three around Bat City, were the most dangerous. The others were generally the regular amount of dangerous, some even being considered safe. BLI liked to keep those roads clear for if and when they needed to use them.

Like now, as Ghoul reached the crossroads of that main southern highway, Highway Flyaway, he was met with a roadblock. A literal one, made of stone and rock and way too many dracs.

“Fuck!” Ghoul shouted.

“Shit!” York shouted.

Ghoul had to think fast. There was nowhere they could go. They couldn’t turn around, they would be followed. They would be followed everywhere. The way to the gorge was blocked, the way back wasn’t an option, and he had two choices now.

“Go! Just go!” York screamed, pointing to Ghoul’s left.

Yeah. They couldn’t off-road and get back on going right, that lead straight to Battery City, which was so not an option. The only other option was somewhere that they literally couldn’t follow them to. They had to go left. Dead Man’s Drop. See, that’s why this highway was called Highway Flyaway. Because that’s what you did when you drove over Dead Man’s Drop.

Ghoul shifted down gears, slowing down and pulling left off the road, startling the dracs and making them scramble to their cars. As he pulled back onto the road, the dracs were already following them. The kids seemed very confused and scared.

“I’m going to do my best, okay?” Ghoul said, keeping a close eye on the cars behind them. They were never fast enough to keep up with Kobra’s modifications to the trans am.

“It’ll be scary, but they won’t be able to follow us.”

“Where are we going now?” Cherry asked, poking her head forward next to Ghoul from the back seat.

“Somewhere- dangerous. But we don’t have a choice. I have to do what I can to keep you kids safe and I can’t handle that many bad guys by myself.” Ghoul watched the crudely put together “Dead Man’s Drop 2mi” sign as they passed it.

“What did that sign say?” Aspen asked, sounding like he already knew.

“Rochester, pull the lever on the back of your seat. Everyone else, get down by the floor.” Ghoul slammed his foot on the gas pedal as they approached the cliff’s edge. “York, get back there.”

York climbed in the back seat with the other kids as Rochester pulled the lever. The seats, reinforced on the backs with as much metal as Kobra could find, folded up and over the kids, creating a perfect pocket to keep them safe and less likely to be speared by anything. Ghoul wished they had made something similar for the front seats as they drove off the cliff.

* * *

Poison came to in the middle of the desert, Show Pony holding him down by his throat with their forearm. He let his hands- hand (where was the other one?) fall beside his head, and apparently he had been trying to choke Show Pony or something before then. They let out a heavy and relieved sigh as they got up off of him.

“Fuck me, you’re way too strong now, terminator,” Show Pony groaned, spitting blood into the dirt.

“What the fuck-” Poison started to ask, but then he remembered. The gas, the virus, the overrides, the car, the desert- he’d almost been completely reprogrammed. He’d tried to bypass the virus on his own, without a Respite unit, popping open access panels all over, disconnecting his right wrist and leg to try and stop himself as he lost control. “Are you okay?”

“Am now,” Show Pony said, nodding and helping him reattach his limbs and getting him on his feet. “You really scared me. If Ghoul hadn’t told me you needed a Respite you would’ve been gone by now.”

“Yeah, thank you,” Poison said, blinking and looking around. “Where are they?”

“Don’t know,” Show Pony picked up the Respite and started walking back to Dr. D’s van. “We lost contact after the roadblock.”

“Roadblock?”

“BLI set up a block at the Flyaway intersection,” they said, tossing the Respite in the back of the van. “My guess is that they tapped into your head.”

“Oh fuck.”

“Exactly.”

“You think they got taken?” Poison climbed into the passenger seat as they started the car.

“I’m not sure. I saw dust heading south, though.” Show Pony’s tone was grim.

“South,” Poison echoed. “You don’t think he…?”

“I think he had to.”

Poison sat with his legs tucked against his chest for the ride back to the radio tower. He didn’t want to think about what kept breaking into his thoughts. Ghoul, dead in a crash all too similar to his own, at the bottom of a huge drop that held nothing but ash and bones. The trans am had safety mechanisms in the back seat, but the front wasn’t finished yet. So, Poison thought, the kids would be fine. They would be okay. Ghoul would almost certainly die.

* * *

Smoke. Ghoul smelled smoke. Strangely, though, it didn’t smell like it was from an oil fire. He smelled… Food? Ghoul strained to open his eyes, finding that his body wanted so desperately to go back to sleep. He fought for what felt like hours, but eventually he opened his eyes.

Wherever he was, it wasn’t bright, but it was blurry. His head swam as he tried to sit up.

“Whoa!” A voice, caught off guard, said from near him. They laughed. “No, no, lay back down!”

Ghoul felt pain stab through his body, but fought against being pushed down by this unknown person. His vision cleared just enough to see where he was. A small building, a shack, with a lone light bulb lighting the room from its center. There was a table by the only door, Ghoul was lying on the only bed, and there was a medium sized cooler under the table. The rest of the room was filled with personal items, old pre-war posters that caught Ghoul off-guard, records and cds and tapes, fairy lights that were rolled onto a spool, a stack of- a fucking stack of books.

“What the fuck,” Ghoul said, turning to look at the person who was now successfully pushing him back down onto the bed. They had bright yellow hair, wore a t-shirt with the name of one of Dr. D’s favorite bands on it, and was wearing glasses (which no-fucking-body had in the zones). “Who the hell are you?”

“Lucky Charm,” He said, smiling at him. “And you need to rest. The kids are safe, they’re playing outside.”

“What?!” Ghoul almost shot up again, but Lucky’s strength kept him down. “Outside?!”

“Relax, no dracs or scarecrows would even entertain the idea of jumping down the cliff.” Lucky sat back on the chair he’d pulled from the table across the room when Ghoul woke up. “Can’t say the same for you, though.”

Ghoul stared at him.

“Sorry, did you not- you fell out of the sky, I guess you probably don’t remember.”

“We- I lived?”

“Barely,” Lucky laughed. “You were lucky nothing speared you, some parts of that car were close! I had to dig you out after I put out the fire, and then I suddenly found a bunch of kids in your back seat!”

“We’re at the bottom of Dead Man’s Drop?” 

“Is that what you guys call it up there?” Lucky mused. “Down here I just call it the wasteland.”

Ghoul stopped talking. His head was spinning again. He stared at the ceiling and tried to process what was happening. 

“I’ll let you rest,” Lucky said, getting up. “You can ask me all your questions when you start feeling better. Until then, I’ll watch the kids.”

There wasn’t much room nor time for refusal as Ghoul passed back out. His last though was that Kobra was going to kill him for wrecking the car.

* * *

With no word from Ghoul, no BLI presence in the desert for a few days, and no time to waste, the remaining Killjoys readied up to retake the Cannery. All they had to go on was the hope that Ghoul would come back with the kids. Otherwise, no one knew what they were going to tell Quick Silver. The Sisters, now offering their cars as well due to the loss of the trans am, had met up at the radio tower. Poison, Jet, and Kobra, glad to find that the Sisters had sorted out their internal feuds, helped them to strategize. 

Dr. D, with Show Pony on his lap and the three gas station droids at his back, watched them work. Show Pony was trying not to have a breakdown thinking about losing Ghoul. The three droids had left for the radio tower before everything went south, not wanting to take up room in the Oblivion.

They’d chosen their names, to Poison’s delight. D7L chose Live Wire, B6N went with Motor Mouth, and R8Y decided on Roman Candle. The doctor had done well with them; Live Wire had a new vocal processor and sounded much better than before, Motor Mouth had gotten a perfectly fitting leg, and Roman Candle got generally patched up and looked a lot better than he used to. They even had started cleaning up the radio tower. Well, maybe not “cleaning” really, but they were organizing Dr. D’s studio, putting records in alphabetical order and keeping the routes for Dr. D’s wheelchair clear. Show Pony wouldn’t let them clean, that was their job.

“So, it’s at the edge of the north-west side of Zone 5,” Kobra said, pointing to their makeshift map. They were all gathered around the coffee table. “The only way we got there was off-road, but there could be a road around there somewhere.”

“Off-road shouldn’t be a problem,” Betty said. She’d shown up with Ghetta Gun and Killer Kween, explaining that Roadrunner and Honey were off duty for a while. The Killjoys were just glad to have help. “If you remember the way there it should be no problem.”

“All we really need to worry about is getting that far north,” Jet said, pointing to Highway Flyaway. “I think it would be a really bad idea to take the main highway north.”

“It would take twice as long to take the roundabout way,” Poison said, startling everyone. He’d been silent since he got back to the radio tower and had confirmed that Ghoul’s radio was either off or worse. “You have to go all the way into Zone 4, then drive back down into Zone 2, and that’s just to get back to the main highway.”

“It’s not ideal,” Betty said, knocking the rest of them out of their stupor. “But it’s the safest way to go.”

“I feel like it would be better if we took the faster route. We don’t want to take too long with this,” Poison argued, crossing his arms.

“We’ll do whatever you tell us to, but I’d like to keep my ladies safe, as well as the rest of you.” Betty mirrored his body language, tall and in charge. 

Jet and Kobra looked between the two gang leaders, hoping the tension would calm down. Betty’s gaze sharpened, making Poison back down.

“Fine,” he said, looking away from her. “You’re right, it’s better if we take the safe route.”

Betty simply nodded.

* * *

“How did you end up down here?” Ghoul asked over his food. It had been a few days since Ghoul had first woken up. Ghoul had had a few minor injuries and one big gash on his leg and a cut through his cheek that had been stitched up by Lucky. Other than those and the slight possible concussion he was fine. It was an amazing stroke of luck. Lucky had made vegetable soup, something Ghoul is pretty sure he’s never had in his life. They were sat at the only table in the shack, talking while Ghoul watched the kids outside from the open door.

“Like you did, I was in a car with other people and we drove over the side.” Lucky motioned to the remains of a car’s hood next to the small fridge. “The others died, but I guess I was lucky.”

Ghoul stared at him.

“What?”

“Nothing,” Ghoul looked back outside. Lucky had started a garden out around his shack, things were growing really well in the desert. “How did you manage to grow all that?”

“Not sure!” Lucky laughed, looking out the door too. “I just planted what we had left over from our trip and it started growing.”

“That’s crazy.”

“Guess it’s just luck.”

Ghoul stared at him again.

“What?”

“… Nothing, man,” Ghoul said, shaking his head.

Outside, York was standing by the shack keeping watch while the other kids checked out the garden and played outside for the first time. Ghoul wondered if they’d ever been able to be outside more than a few minutes at a time. Lucky had told him that, at first, the kids didn’t want to leave the shack for fear of being caught. But once he showed them that you could basically shout at the top of your lungs and nothing would happen the kids finally went outside and haven’t come in since. They were in the shade of the cliff to their right, the one they’d driven off. Ghoul didn’t want to panic, but he was starting to worry about being able to get back up.

“Have you ever found a way to get back up?” Ghoul asked, turning back to Lucky.

“Oh I have actually!” Lucky smiled suddenly. “There’s a cave nearby, it leads right up under that big robot! I was really-”

“Lucky to find it,” Ghoul finished for him, sitting back and sighing deeply. It seemed too easy, but then again this guy obviously got his name from somewhere.

“Uh, yeah…” Lucky deflated a little. “What’s wrong?”

“Seriously?” Ghoul looked back at him. “Your name is Lucky Charm.”

Lucky stared at him for a minute, then started laughing.

“You’re looking at me like I’m crazy when you’re like ‘oh I just got lucky!’?” Ghoul laughed.

“Look, after a while it stops meaning the same thing!” Lucky took a breath. “God, I’m an idiot. Duh.”

“Nah, you’re just Lucky.”

“Shut up!” Lucky laughed again, shoving Ghoul’s arm. “Anyway, the cave is about a mile west. It’s a long trek and it’s mostly in the dark. I’m assuming you’re going to be going alone?”

“Yeah,” Ghoul said, looking back outside at the kids. “I wanted to talk about that. I can’t bring them back up. It’s- I mean, It’s a miracle we all lived to begin with, but to find you and this place down here… I can’t pass up that chance, you know?”

“Absolutely, but…” Lucky also looked outside. “I can’t take care of them. I’ve never been… awesome with kids… I mean, no one has, you know? They don’t really exist in the zones.”

“I know. I know someone who had been taking care of them before. It’ll take some doing to make her trust you, but I think once she sees this place she’ll understand.”

“Oh thank god.” Lucky relaxed a lot, then. “I thought you were going to make me take care of them by myself when you talked about leaving.”

“No, I wouldn’t do that to you,” Ghoul chuckled. He watched as York pulled Cherry off the cherry tree. “That being said, you will have to watch them while I go get their caretaker.”

“Your daughter seems like she’ll be able to help me out, so I think I’ll be okay for a short time.” 

“My- oh, no, York isn’t my daughter…” Ghoul grimaced.

“Oh. Sorry, I just assumed because- I’m sorry.” Lucky turned pink.

“It’s fine. I get it.” Ghoul sighed. It was normal for zoners to mistake Ravenheads for being related, though to Ghoul it was one of the weirdest trends to occur in the zones. Sure, it was the most unnatural hair color in the zones, and sure, it wasn’t like you saw Ravenheads everywhere, but assuming they were all related was really bizarre to Ghoul. So, really, he didn’t get it. But he wasn’t going to make it a big deal, he didn’t really care that much. “You said a mile west?”

“Yeah!” Lucky was glad they were moving on. “It’s a bit hidden by some boulders, but I can find it for you.”

“I almost want you to come with me, use you for luck,” Ghoul chuckled.

“I honestly would go with you,” Lucky said. “It’s kind of a scary trek, but you should be able to make it on your own. I’ll give you lots of stuff to help you get through.”

“Thank you.” Ghoul sighed then. “I really appreciate everything you’ve done for us, Lucky. We definitely would’ve died without you.”

“Don’t mention it,” Lucky said, waving him off. “All in a day’s work for the wasteland’s only resident.”

“Hey, by the way, how long have you been down here?”

“Oh, a long time.” Lucky smiled wistfully, looking out the window. “A long time.”

Ghoul stared at him.

“Anyway, if you’re feeling up to it soon, we can find the entrance to the tunnel.”

“Yeah. Soon.” Ghoul watched him a while longer. He’d always heard Dr. D’s stories about the desert having protectors in it. The Phoenix Witch was one such protector. Others didn’t have well-known names. Ghoul couldn’t remember if Dr. D had talked about any protector that sounded like Lucky, but he sure seemed unusual for the zones. His story made sense, sort of, but Ghoul was hung up about how much luck this guy really could have. But, then again, Ghoul wasn’t about to bite the hand feeding him. Literally.

* * *

The Killjoys, escorted by the Transistor Sisters, had been making their way toward the Cannery after a few hours of taking the longer, safer route to head due west. Luckily, they stopped at the Zone 4 gas station to keep their promise of gas to the Sisters. They were on the off-road trail made by the Killjoys heading straight for the Cannery. Betty had been adamant on keeping the Killjoys in one car, so she lent one of the Sisters’ cars to them while the three Sisters drove behind them in the other car. 

Unlike the Killjoys, the Transistor Sisters each had a car of their own. When their gang had founded, Betty and Roadrunner had made it a rite of passage to find, fix, and trick out your own car. One by one, each Sister that would join would be taken either through known wreckage sites or right into Bat City to find cars. The Killjoys only ever had the trans am, and that was due to sheer dumb luck on Jet Star’s part. He was the original Killjoy, after all. 

Kobra was driving Ghetta’s car, leading their group with Jet and Poison in the car. Ghetta’s car was an old pickup, not made for dust racing like Betty and Roadrunner’s cars were. Betty was behind him in her own car, one that was probably a car with a name before she tricked it out and made it her own. It was similar to the trans am, that was all anyone could ever say about it. The shape was similar. 

“Are we sure this is safe?” Kobra asked to no one in particular.

“I’ve been thinking the same thing,” Jet said, watching the Cannery get closer as they drove.

“I’ve actually been thinking the opposite,” Poison grumbled, sitting up.

“What do you mean?” Kobra looked at him through the rear view mirror.

“I don’t think BLI gives half a damn about the Cannery,” Poison spat. “I think when Ghoul offed himself over the Drop they realized something else was going on.”

Jet turned around to look at him.

“I think they’re reviewing their data right now, and I think we’re about to find an empty building and find we’ve wasted time and resources.” Poison was glaring at the Cannery.

“I think BLI is planning again.”

“Well, why didn’t you fucking say anything for the past four hours?!” Kobra shouted, slamming his fist on the dash. “Why are we wasting our time then?”

“Guys,” Jet said weakly. There was no point in trying to calm them down, though. When the brothers fought, you had to physically separate them.

“Because, Kid!” Poison shouted back. “I can think all the shit I want, that doesn’t make me right!”

“You usually are! And you’re the leader, you should have said something!”

“No! Dr. D wants us to secure the Cannery, so that’s what we’re fucking doing! Obviously we can’t just leave tons of food unchecked and uncalled for, that’s both a waste and a liability!”

“Then what was all that talk about wasting our time?!”

“Because we ARE wasting our time! We’re gonna get here, taking fucking stock of the food, pack some for he Sisters, and then leave! There’s not going to be any fighting here, no revenge to be had, nothing- nothing satisfying!”

“Too fucking bad!” Kobra slammed on the breaks as they reached the front of the Cannery. They’d driven all the way to the door without being stopped, proving Poison’s hunch was right. “We won’t get satisfying revenge this time!”

“How do you know? We could track down the fucking dracs that chased them off the cliff, we could-”

“Because it’s Ghoul that does that!” Kobra screamed, again slamming his fist onto the dash. 

The car got painfully quiet. Jet had his head in his hands. Poison shut his mouth, though still looked angry.

“Ghoul does revenge best, he always has! And he’s not fucking here right now! He might never be again.” Kobra’s voice started losing steam. “He might be gone forever, P…”

Poison, to Jet’s surprise, said nothing. He just stared at his lap.

“Let’s just get this over with,” Kobra sighed.

* * *

The tunnel was dark, but every so often there was a dim lantern hung along the scaffolding. It was a wonder the wood hadn’t all rotted by now, seeing as this tunnel must’ve been a mine of some sort a hell of a long time ago. Ghoul was glad the tunnels were still standing. Lucky had given him a flashlight, replacement batteries, food, and water to help him make it through.

The longer he went in the tunnel the more it wound around. Ghoul lost track of which way he was facing pretty early on. It became a mind game after that. How many turns could it possibly have? Which way was he facing now? How much longer would he have to be a mole person?

After a while he started getting really lost in his head as he walked. The tunnel was big enough to stand up properly, but it was tight enough to feel slightly claustrophobic all the time. He started to think about how he’d left the group. He didn’t know if Poison was okay. Last he’d seen he was being hacked or something by BLI and had dived out of the car. Hopefully Show Pony had gotten to him in time with whatever a Respite was. Ghoul could only hope. At least he knew the kids were safe, that was the only thing he knew for sure. Lucky promised to keep them safe and York had promised to be in charge of the younger kids. Ghoul wasn’t worried about the kids being able to take care of themselves. They really only needed Lucky to make sure they didn’t kill themselves somehow. 

The tunnels were never-ending, Ghoul was starting to think he’d never get out. He had no concept of time, he figured it could have been a few minutes or almost a day. He had no way of knowing. He just kept walking.

* * *

To some, the fact that the Cannery was left untouched was a victory. Some being the Sister. To others, namely the remaining Killjoys, it was an unsatisfying waste of the Sisters’ resources.

The Killjoys packed up as much food as they could, filling Ghetta’s pickup with food for the radio tower and the Oblivion, and giving a large amount of food to the Sisters in Betty’s car. They had already radioed back to Dr. D that the Cannery was secure and that they were headed back. With the lack of BLI presence at the Cannery, Betty was comfortable going the faster way home.

And that’s where they were. This time, Jet was driving the pickup, with Kobra and Poison in the back seat. The food was safe in the truck bed.

After today, Poison wanted to cry. It all had finally caught up with him. Ghoul was probably dead, and he absolutely would have kept the kids alive with the trans am’s modifications to the back seat. The kids were down there somewhere, probably going to die of exposure, and Ghoul was dead, crumpled in a car crushed like a soda can. Their world was ending.

As they drove for the next two hours to get back to the radio tower, the Killjoys listened to the radio for updates from Dr. D.

“As we go live for the day, at the top of high noon, we have an update on current events,” Dr. Death said, his voice crackling over the speakers. “As you may know, if you’re someone who pays attention, we had quite a ruckus a few days ago. The Good Doctor and his nurses had a scare with a blackbird, so that’s that noise you heard. As for the Killjoys and their current situation, it’s not the best, I’ll be honest.”

Poison grimaced.

“We… Well, we’ve lost our youngest.” Dr. D went quiet for a moment. “As far as we know, he’s at the bottom of Dead Man’s Drop. Currently, the rest of the boys are working with the Sisters about getting a new vehicle.”

Kobra turned off the radio.

* * *

The tunnels did stop. After who knows how fucking long, the tunnels finally started arcing up. And once they did, it was a lot sooner that Ghoul found himself knocking his head against something metal in the darkness. He’d run out of batteries for the flash light a while ago and had been officially going insane in the dull darkness of the tunnels. It took him a while to realize what metal meant, and when he remembered who the hell he was he felt around for a way up or a handle of any kind.

He felt a divot and pulled, opening up a chamber up inside the giant robot outside the Nest. Wires hung loose and Ghoul used them to climb up inside the robot. He assumed he was somewhere in the chest. Soft orange light filtered through the dusty old metal, telling him it was probably evening or very early morning.

Crawling up to the head and out one of the eye holes, Ghoul concluded it was evening due to the stars starting to show up as the sky got darker. He also concluded that the Nest was empty, which wasn’t totally unusual but was weird for a quiet night like this one. People, such as the Sisters, usually liked to use the space for hanging out or partying. He looked off toward the city skyline. The Nest was on the border of Zone 2, just outside of Zone 1 to the south-west. If he followed the dirt road to the highway, it wouldn’t be that long a walk to the radio tower. But Ghoul had had a lot of time to think while he was in those tunnels. A lot of irrational thinking.

He was going after Korse.

Now, his line of thinking was this: it was obvious that somehow BLI knew something big was going on or had been in the zones. Clearly, there had been some way that they knew a droid would be the one out in the desert when the blackbird flew. Whatever was in the bomb they dropped was tailored for droids. That doesn’t totally incriminate Korse, but it does bring up the question of how they knew that from the sound alone. Blackbirds didn’t have cameras, but they did have microphones. Whoever was on the other end had to have known Poison’s voice. Besides, Ghoul thought, it wasn’t like zoners knew about the specific Gerard Way model of droid in Bat City. At least not all of them. But anyhow, then there’s the fact that they didn’t send an EMP, which would have either knocked Poison out for long enough to collect him, or killed him and fried his brain. No, they sent an airborne virus that only affected droids. Not to get rid of him, but to control him. And that was where Ghoul thought of Korse. From what Poison had told him about the bastard, he was an insane control freak. Had to have everything just perfectly in place in his apartment, had to have every man on his team doing exactly as he said. It wasn’t an outlandish idea to think that Korse would have wanted to bring Poison back by taking control over him instead of risking the EMP, because remember it can fry droids if they’re too close. And finally, that comment Poison made back when they’d first gotten the kids to the Oblivion, BLI causes accidents in the zones. Ghoul had to know if Poison’s accident was planned, orchestrated somehow by them, by Korse.

Okay, maybe it was about revenge. But Ghoul was ready to cut the sweet revenge out of Korse’s skull.

* * *

The Sisters left the radio station, on their way to deliver the last of the food to the Oblivion Hotel. Left behind, broken and without a car, Jet, Kobra, and Poison sat outside the radio tower watching the sun set. Today had sucked. The last few days of hearing nothing back had sucked. The slowly growing sense of dread sucked. Show Pony had come out to see them, just to say hello.

“Welcome home,” they’d said. 

Poison didn’t feel like it was home anymore. It left a bad taste in his mouth. Live Wire came out to see them, too. He asked how things had gone, if the gas station was safe to go back to. Jet offered for them to stay at the radio tower, something Kobra visibly stiffened at. Live Wire politely declined, saying Dr. D had offered the same but that him and his two friends needed somewhere more permanent.

They’d had two conversations, two reminders that the three of them weren’t the most important things in the zones. After that, though, they sat outside until the universe could be seen in the clear desert sky. Poison felt like shit. He’d held hope for the last few days, hope that the situation would change drastically. Jet and Kobra had hoped, too. They hoped that soon, Ghoul would roll up with the trans am, each kid accounted for and safe, well fed and well rested. That was foolish to hope for. Poison was reminded again that anything and everything can be taken from you in an instant. Jet was reminded to keep each person you love close, because you never know when you’ll lose them. Kobra was reminded that he still, still, can’t keep his friends and family safe, no matter how hard he tried. 

That night, Dr. D broke the news to Quick Silver that they weren’t very hopeful of Ghoul and the kids’ return. Silver simply hung her head and nodded. It seemed like she was reminded of something, too. 

And somewhere in the city, deep under the surface, in an office filled with monitors displaying the city streets, sitting at a desk with his nameplate overturned and a glass of water shattered at his feet, Korse watched the Ravenhead Killjoy break into the city slums. His fist, still full of glass shards, shook with rage. One failure after another and now this. The worst was knowing that he’d wanted to be seen. He was from the city, he knew how to enter unnoticed, but he had chosen to be front and center on camera. It made Korse’s heart twist. Such an arrogant zone rat. Why does he deserve G3R’s time? After every attempt to rid the zones of the one thing holding Korse back from doing his damn job, the object of it’s affection is breaking into his domain. Arrogant moron. Fine, Korse thought, you can play your game. You can use your barcode to go where you please, but if you want to be noticed, get ready to be noticed.

* * *

Ghoul never thought he’d be thankful for the fact that the city slums never change. There were still people willing to do literally anything if you either had carbons or a way to get them what they wanted. Ravenheads were hated in the slums, that was for sure, but if you befriended one you could get into the good shops and steal things worth a month’s worth of drugs, alcohol, whatever it was you wanted. Ghoul remembered being the kid they’d send into the shops to distract the clerks so that the homeless slugs who had “hired” him could steal as much as they could hold. Then, they’d go to the nearest pawn shop in the slums and sell it all. Ghoul never got more than ten percent of the earnings, and he had thought that was a good deal. He wasn’t a junkie, not then, so it wasn’t like he had needed the money for much. He just thought he was helping people. But then those people got him hooked on downers and he started needing more money. 

But instead of trotting down memory lane, Ghoul shook those thoughts away and focused on the task at hand. He could easily get to the lower levels and even into the inner circle, but the issue would be having a reason to go into the headquarters. He could walk right in, anyone could, but if you didn’t have a reason to be there you’d be kicked out. 

As he got lost in thought about that, someone ran their shoulder into his on the street.

“Ow!” They shouted, grabbing their shoulder and turning around to face Ghoul. “Hey! Watch where you’re fucking walking, asshole!”

“Cut the act, dickwad,” Ghoul grumbled, continuing down the street. “You ran into me.”

“No I did not, you hit me!” The guy was getting louder, and more people were taking notice of their interaction.

“I didn’t fucking hit you.” He turned around to face the guy now. “What, is it your first day of thief school or something?”

“What?” The man looked offended.

“There was nothing in my pocket so you have to make a scene, I’m not fucking new in town.” Ghoul turned out his pockets. “I’ve been in the zones, we don’t use carbons out there. So when you ran into me and found nothing, the next best thing it making me feel like I have to do something for you in return. Then it turns into the plot of a bad movie.”

The guy looked angry.

“I’m not new. You shouldn’t have gone for me anyway. What, did people finally warm up to Ravenheads?” Ghoul turned back and started walking again, leaving the guy with his speech. “And now I get to walk away without you doing a damn thing.”

“What makes you think you’re off the hook?” The guy shouted.

“I’m Her son.”

The street was silent. Ghoul loved doing that. He’d missed it, to be honest. You could silence a person, a room, a building, a street, a block with those three words. It was risky, though. Sometimes people didn’t give a shit. Sometimes it made them angrier. But usually it had the effect it had on the street he was on, silence, careful whispers, gazes kept off him. No one wanted to find out what would happen if they messed with Her son. They couldn’t imagine the repercussions. Ghoul thought it was funny, though. She wouldn’t give a shit, she probably wouldn’t even believe him if he told her to her face. But still, it was fun to play pretend like you were invincible.

* * *

Poison sat on the Big Rock and stared at the stars that night. He wanted to be alone, so Jet and Kobra agreed to let him take a walk alone. Dr. D was satisfied with the lack of BLI lately, so he was okay with it too. The rock was still there, a sort of reminder that whatever they’d had had been real. Where they’d watched the shooting stars, where they’d shared probably too many firsts. On a rock in the middle of nowhere. He watched the city skyline, a gross purple beacon, a blemish on the face of the desert. He hoped that one day he could wipe it off the map, clean the desert of BLI’s metaphorical and literal poison.

But he could say all of that pretty easily. That one day he’ll save the desert, be this big hero that he thinks everyone needs. It’s a lot harder to actually do that. If Poison was being honest, he felt like it was impossible. He would never be a hero, he couldn’t even keep his- he couldn’t keep Ghoul safe. Sure, it had been Ghoul’s choice to chance Dead Man’s Drop, and he’d had no other choice, but if Poison had told Cherry no to the walk in the first place, this wouldn’t have happened. Well, maybe that was unfair thinking. Poison couldn’t have known that all this would happen just from taking a walk. But he should’ve expected it.

As he watched the skyline, he wondered if there was anything after death for him. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that Ghoul had been lead to the other side by the Phoenix Witch, but what was waiting for Poison if he died? Destroya? Was Destroya even real? Did droids even have souls?

The purple hue of the city’s skyscrapers started shifting, changing color slowly and mixing with something else. Poison leaned forward, not sure what to expect. Slowly, the city’s lights all turned green. 

It felt like a punch in the gut. Poison curled up on the rock and hugged his knees to his chest. He watched as the lights got brighter and he started to cry. Properly this time, not the small sniffle here and there he was doing at the radio tower. He was on the big rock, in the middle of nowhere. Not a soul for miles, no one to hear him wail. So he did. He screamed at the city, he let his pain tear through his throat and explode into the air around him. There was nothing that was going to make him feel better.

* * *

Ghoul made it all the way to the underground gates without incident after that. He’d been left alone, ignored by the city as he had gone deeper, places Ravenheads were more likely to be. It took hours to get to City Center. The huge, arched entrances to the underground glowed purple, like the rest of the city. It was Her chosen color. She wanted things to be purple, so they were. She just liked the color.

As he walked up to the turnstile, Ghoul pulled his sleeves up, exposing the two thin black barcodes tattooed on his wrists since birth. Every family of the original founders had their own barcodes, the style. Each member had a unique one. 

Ghoul scanned both his wrists where a keycard would be scanned to get in, on either side of each turnstile. When he did, though, the guard on duty turned to look at him in surprise. The screens on each scanner turned bright green instead of orange.

“What the fuck?” Ghoul muttered, staring at them.

“Green?” The guard said, turning to examine the screen next to him. “Oh! Oh my god, you’re-”

Before he could finish his sentence, the gate’s lights above them turned green. Then, the gate next to them light up green. Slowly each gate turned green and then the buildings around them, the street lights, every light that used to be purple turned green. Suddenly all the TV screens around tuned to the same channel. The executive channel. Her face was everywhere. 

“Citizens of Battery City,” she said, her voice booming over the speakers around them. “Today is a truly amazing day for us all.”

The city slowly continued turning green, the skyscrapers glowing like they were radioactive.

“You may not have known, but I once had a son.” Fake-sounding gasps erupted around Ghoul. “He was taken from me, raised outside the city in the wastelands of the zones.”

“What the fuck?” Ghoul said again.

“I always held hope that he would find his way home. And today, this glorious day, it seems that he has found his way back to me.” People began to cheer around Ghoul. “I cannot wait to see you, son.”

Ghoul stared at the monitor nearest him. He felt his heart pound in his chest. This hadn’t been the plan. This had never happened before. Because she didn’t fucking care about her children. This was happening on purpose.

“My beautiful child,” she said, her voice disgustingly sweet. “My son. My heir.”

“Don’t you dare,” Ghoul growled at the monitor.

“My successor. Frank.”

* * *

“I’ve never seen the lights be anything but purple above ground,” Dr. D said. It was the next morning, Poison had come back and told everyone about the lights changing. “The crazy bitch loves that color so much, I wonder what changed?”

“It happened really slowly, too,” Poison said, his voice somewhat muffled by the food in his mouth. “It was really weird.”

“Maybe we should check it out, what if it’s something really big?” Jet asked, leaning forward on the couch. “Green and purple aren’t very similar colors, what if She got dethroned or something?”

“I’m not going to put you three in danger like that,” Dr. D said, shaking his head. “I don’t want you three anywhere near the city right now.”

“Yeah, none of you even think of getting near there,” Show Pony said sharply. They were stood behind Dr. Death, arms crossed. They’d been worried sick about the three of them since Ghoul- well, since he left. Nobody was willing to admit he’d died. He just left.

“Okay, we won’t, I promise,” Poison agreed immediately. The last thing he wanted to do was make Show Pony worry about them more. And this time, he had no intention of breaking that promise.

Later, Jet, Kobra, and Poison all sat outside. It was nearing noon, so the desert was getting hot. Poison stared out at the desert around them, wondering when it started to feel like he’d been stranded. Maybe it was the fact that they physically didn’t have a car anymore, but it felt like the radio tower was all they had left. Even if that wasn’t true, that’s what it felt like.

Poison glanced at his friends, still unsure how well they were taking this whole fucked up situation. Kobra had started drinking again. Jet hadn’t been sleeping. But outwardly they seemed okay. Kobra didn’t lash out as much, Jet didn’t stop smiling at things. It just felt off. Poison was definitely the worst out of the three of them, he still couldn’t stop reliving the last moments he had with Ghoul. What he’d said, what he should have said, what he did, what he should have done. It sucked.

And what sucked the worst, what stung the most out of everything that had happened, was that they had failed. They’d failed to keep each other safe, they’d failed to keep the kids safe, they’d failed to keep their promise to Silver, they’d failed to keep their promise to the droids, they’d failed. The only people they’d managed to keep their promise to were the Sisters. And even that felt like a failure, since they hardly needed them in the end. Poison wondered if anything would feel like anything but failure ever again.

* * *

“You look terrible,” She said, sipping her coffee. She was sat across from Ghoul, at the coffee table in her office. They were all the way down at the bottom of the Inner Circle, the lowest level of the BLI headquarters. “What happened to your face?”

“You say that like you knew what it looked like before,” Ghoul spat, continuing to bounce his leg nervously.

“Technically…” She said with a smirk.

“Shut up.”

She chuckled and took another sip of coffee. Her office was large, taking up the entire floor. It felt more like a penthouse than an office. Ghoul had been escorted there by multiple scarecrows, all wearing their hoods. It felt disgusting to see people’s excited faces the deeper they went into the city. They’d made a spectacle out of him.

“So, my son,” She said, setting her cup down.

“Don’t call me that.”

“What have you come home to mother for?” She sat back in her chair, getting comfortable.

“I came here to get revenge.”

“On me?”

“Don’t think so highly of yourself.”

“Then who are you getting revenge on? And how can I be of assistance?”

“You can assist me,” Ghoul mocked, “by letting me go and let me do what I want.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

“You didn’t have a problem when I was ten.”

“When you were ten, I didn’t care about you.”

“Figured.”

“But now, after all this time, I care.” She spoke with fake sincerity. “I care about what happens to my little boy.”

“Cut the shit. Who did all this?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, the gates never responded to my barcodes before. Why now?”

“I haven’t the foggiest idea what you mean.”

“Bullshit!” Ghoul kicked the table leg. “Who changed them to recognize my code?!”

“You’re going to have to calm down or else I’ll make you wait to finish this conversation.” She tapped her foot lightly, making the guards by the door turn to look at them. “What does it matter whose choice it was?”

“Just tell me the truth.”

“What if it was me? What if I wanted to find you?”

“Why, then?”

“I can’t tell you that.”

“Then it wasn’t you,” Ghoul sighed, waving a hand. “I know it wasn’t you who changed it. You wouldn’t give a shit.”

“I do,” She said sweetly. “I care.”

“Nice try, but the fried servos in that metal head of yours aren’t capable of that anymore.”

She went quiet.

“What?” Ghoul laughed. “You thought I couldn’t tell that you’re not yourself anymore? You think I can’t tell flesh and bone from the city’s patented droid skin?”

“I’m sure you’ve had more than enough experience with it,” She sneered. “Up close and personal.”

“You watch your fucking mouth, hag,” Ghoul growled. 

She shut up then, Closing her eyes and calming herself down. One thing Ghoul hated was realizing they had similar mannerisms. 

“I will answer only one question for right now, since you’ve been so rude to your mother.” She said, glaring at him. “Tomorrow we can have a proper conversation if you’re willing to act civilized.”

“I’ll ask one question and then we’ll see how it goes,” Ghoul said, narrowing his eyes at her. “Was it Korse?”

She stared at him.

“Well?”

“… Yes.” She looked interested. “How did you know that?”

“Chew glass,” Ghoul said, standing up and walking toward the room she had told him was his to use. 

She laughed despite herself as he slammed the door behind him. 

Of course it had been Korse. Ghoul had been arrogant and got himself caught on tape breaking in. What an idiot. He didn’t have time for this, he never should have done this in the first place. If the others didn’t think he was dead yet, it wouldn’t be long if he didn’t get out soon. He looked around to room, clearly a weird guest room (who the fuck puts bedrooms in their office) with artificial windows. Artificial because they were underground, of course. Ghoul needed a way out, and for once he couldn’t rely on his barcodes to get him anywhere. He wondered, as he sat on the bed, if he could convince one of the guards to let him out. He had nothing to bride them with, though. The room was bare, a typical guest room with no personal affects. Not surprising. He’d probably have to lie. Nothing new. But maybe he’d have a nap first. The guest bed was pretty nice, after all. He’d nap for a bit, since he hadn’t slept all night, and then he’d be well rested to find his way to Korse.

* * *

They had no idea what to do. Quick Silver decided to leave with Live Wire, Motor Mouth, and Roman Candle. Dr. D told them that they were welcome to stay in any of the Killjoys’ territory, as well as telling them about the Nest and how it was neutral ground for all zoners. They told the Killjoys that they’d do some looking around for a while. Silver told them, despite the end result of their mission together, that she was proud of them for doing whatever they could to keep her kids safe. Poison couldn’t stop saying he was sorry.

After they left, Jet and Kobra were picked up by the Sisters to scope out a new car. Nothing stopped moving in the zones so they couldn’t take breaks either. Except Poison. He was taking a fucking break.

Show Pony kept checking on him in his room but he never moved. He’d laid down on his shitty mattress and hadn’t moved all day. He ate the protein pars Shoy Pony would give him, and drank the water that was with it, but he wouldn’t get up. He was taking a break. He didn’t want to fall asleep, either. It hurt to much to think about dreaming without Ghoul there. What would he even do? He figured he’d either burn the white space to the ground or just sit and cry. Crying was almost all of what he did while he was awake anyway.

Despite his best efforts, Poison started to drift off sometime before noon. He didn’t really have a choice and he was too tired to fight it. He let himself be pulled under into whatever dream he was about to have.

* * *

“Poison!”

“Ghoul?” 

Poison was tackled almost as soon as he popped into the white space. It was exactly how they’d left it, or at least he figured it was. He didn’t totally remember making a street corner with a bakery, but it felt like it had alway been there. The cactus was there, it was quite tall now, flowering brightly. The tree, the grass, the Big Rock too. Everything in their white space was normal.

And Ghoul was there.

“Poison!” He said again, now muffled by Poison’s shoulder. “Thank god you’re okay!”

“I- I’m okay?” Poison said dumbly, hugging him back.

“Yeah, stupid!” Ghoul pulled back and Poison looked at his face. He looked- different. He had scars Poison didn’t recognize. He had makeshift stitches in his face, holding together his left cheek. His smile was a bit lopsided now. “You threw yourself out of the car, I was worried something bad had happened!”

“Y- you-” Poison had to take a minute to remember what was going on. Was Ghoul even real here? “You threw yourself over Dead Man’s Drop!”

Ghoul flinched when Poison yelled at him. The tree stopped blowing in the breeze. The people in the bakery stopped and watched. The cactus dropped a flower.

“Are you even still alive?!” Poison shouted, though not moving to get up. “Where are you?!”

“Hey, stop yelling, you’re freaking the clouds out,” Ghoul said, glancing up at them. “I’m okay, I was lucky and survived the crash.”

“So you did crash,” Poison said, moving them and sitting up, Ghoul in his lap.

“I did. It was the only way to keep the kids safe and to get BLI off of us. I expected to die, I’m not going to lie to you.” Ghoul smiled as Poison put his hands on his face. “But I got lucky. I met someone down there that saved my life.”

“What?” Poison ran his fingers over Ghoul’s new scars. “Someone was down there? Alive?”

“Yeah. His name is Lucky Charm, and his name isn’t just for show. He’s got a shack down there, plants that are growing well, and even a way to get back up to the zones.”

“Whoa, slow down,” Poison said, closing his eyes. “Someone’s living down there? And- like, surviving? Growing things? A way back up?”

“Yeah! It’s a tunnel that leads right up under the robot in front of the Nest.”

“What?!”

“Oh, that reminds me, you’ve got to tell Quick Silver about it. The kids are all safe down there with Lucky-”

“Then where are you?!” Poison grabbed his face squishing his cheeks angrily. “We’ve all thought you died back there! Where the hell are you?!”

“I’m fine!” Ghoul laughed. “I’m on a super secret mission, I can’t tell you about it.”

“Why? Because I’ll get mad at you?”

“Definitely.”

Poison stopped squishing Ghoul’s cheeks, letting his hands fall to his shoulders. “Does it have to do with the city lights?”

Ghoul’s eyes widened, and the neon lights above the bakery turned green.

“It does, doesn’t it?” Poison looked at the bakery.

“Sort of…”

“Are you in Battery City?” The people in the bakery all stood from their chairs, concerned.

“Yes, but-”

“Ghoul! What the hell?! Why are you in Bat City?! Do you need help?!” The people in the bakery started to rush around, cleaning their tables and packing up food.

“No! No, I don’t need help!” The baker came out from behind the counter and started shouting to help them calm down. “I’m safe, though. I’m completely safe, unharmed, everything is okay.”

Poison watched the baker get people to sit back down at their tables, calming them all down.

“I’m doing something really important, and I don’t want you anywhere near the city. Okay?” Ghoul watched the baker hug the cashier. “I know this city like the back of my hand, I’m not going to get myself killed.”

“Okay… If you’re sure about it… But if something goes wrong you need to tell me, somehow.” Poison looked back at him. 

“I promise.” Ghoul gently pressed a kiss to his forehead. “I’ll tell you somehow. But I don’t expect it to go wrong.”

“Okay…” Poison nodded slightly. He hugged Ghoul tightly, hiding his face in his neck. “I’m just glad you’re safe.”

“Ditto,” Ghoul chuckled. “Hey, what’s a Respite, anyway?”

“Oh, that… It’s this little machine that Show Pony made, it repairs corrupted code in droids. Well, mostly me. They built it for me just in case.”

“That’s incredible, how did they do that?”

“I don’t really know. Even with all the complex bells and whistles I’m made of I don’t know how any of it works.” Poison laughed. “I can hardly use a radio.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask something,” Ghoul said, biting his lip. “Is Show Pony…”

“A droid?” Poison finished his question, pulling back to look at Ghoul.

“Yeah.”

“… Don’t tell them I told you, but yeah. They’re a droid. But not a normal one.”

“How so?”

“That’s their story, not mine. Sorry.”

The tree grew over them, shading them from the light. Ghoul respected that Show Pony had lots of secrets. So did he. He didn’t plan on sharing his secrets, so it was fine if they never told him theirs. The grass grew further. The bakery was back in normal working order. They were selling coffee now. Poison wondered when they got a coffee maker. Ghoul figured they’d gotten it in their latest shipment of things to the shop. Poison agreed it was probably then. The stars formed out of the light shining through the tree’s branches and leaves. Suddenly in was nighttime and they were on the Big Rock. Ghoul made shooting stars, Poison watched them for hours. 

They never got to say goodbye when they shared dreams. They always just woke up.

* * *

Ghoul woke up from his nap to a knock at the door. He feels like he dreamed something important, but he couldn’t remember what.

“Frank,” She called through the door. “There is food for you if you are willing to believe I wouldn’t poison you.”

“Fuck off,” Ghoul shouted, getting off the bed.

“Did you sleep?”

“You have cameras, you tell me.”

She walked away from the door then, sighing. Ghoul heard a door shut down the hall and threw the door open. The hall was empty, it was getting late now. Probably. He couldn’t actually tell what time it was, but he assumed he slept long enough for it to be getting late. At the very least it was later than it used to be.

It was pretty easy to get down the hall and to the door, the guard was the hard part. They didn’t budge as Ghoul walked up to them.

“Hey, let me through,” Ghoul said, seeing if that got him anywhere.

The guard, a scarecrow with their mask on, said nothing and didn’t move.

“Please?” Ghoul tried.

They didn’t move.

“Now?”

They fidgeted slightly.

“Move,” Ghoul said sternly.

They stepped aside.

That was easy. It wouldn’t stay easy. Ghoul left the room and found the hall he’d come through before. He turned around, remembering something important.

“Give me your keycard,” he said, holding out his hand. The guard’s keycard was placed in his hand without fuss, and then he turned back around to the hall.

He ran left, toward the elevator, and swiped the card through to open the doors. Once inside, he swiped the card again and hit the lobby level button. He’d have to go there to find where Korse’s office was, then use the elevator again to get there.

It turned out, however, that he wouldn’t need to do either of those things. On the way up, the elevator stopped, opened, and in walked Korse. He looked surprised to see Ghoul there, which made Ghoul scoff to himself. Korse was the reason he was here in the first place. When he hesitated to get in the elevator, Ghoul grabbed his arm and pulled him in just as the doors shut. Then, he slammed the emergency button to make the elevator stop between floors.

“You,” Korse said, still stunned.

“You,” Ghoul spat, turning to glare at him in the dark.

“What are you-”

“The guards listen to family, it seems.”

“What? They let you-”

“Shut up.” Ghoul pointed a finger at him. “The whole reason I came to the city was to ask you something, and hopefully rip you to shreds for your answer.”

“Ask me something?” Korse was starting to realize the situation. He was trapped in an elevator with an angry little man. The man he’d thought was kept prisoner in Her office. And he really was shorter in person…

“Yeah. I wanna know something and you better tell the truth.” Ghoul heard alarms blaring outside the elevator. “And be quick about it.”

“Fine,” Korse sighed. He figured it wouldn’t matter soon, he’d answer whatever stupid questions he had and then he’d be put back away in his box. Out of Korse’s way.

“Did you cause the accident in the gorge?” Ghoul felt his heart pounding.

Korse stared at him. Oh, he wanted those answers. Fine. Maybe this could be fun.

“Well?” Ghoul crossed his arms.

“The one that nearly killed your boyfriend?” Korse spoke with venom, sneering at Ghoul. “Yes. Of course I did. Did you ever go back and check if that rock was still there?”

Ghoul stared at him, hate burning in his chest. He hadn’t checked. He hadn’t even thought about it.

“And when he seemingly broke his hip just by walking?” Korse said with a smile. “Those legs were never hard to break.”

Ghoul was fuming, almost turning red.

“And what else? What else did I do? I’ve got to think, I can’t quite remember it all.” 

Ghoul lost his cool, whipping his hand out to grab Korse’s throat.

“Oh right! The bomb a few days ago.” Korse laughed. “That was fun.”

Ghoul punched the side of the elevator.

“A fun new neurotoxin engineered especially for droids. It connects them directly to us and allows us to take temporary control of them remotely. How did he manage to fight that back, by the way? Oh, but you probably wouldn’t know, he jumped out of the car and almost dislocated his shoulder.”

Ghoul was done listening. He’d gotten his answer. He punched Korse straight in the nose, shutting him up and leaving him stunned. Then, Ghoul hit the emergency button again and the elevator started to move again. He grabbed the blaster off of Korse’s belt, bashed him over the head with it, and then aimed it at the door. As the door opened, he fired at whoever was standing there. He got a few dracs down and a scarecrow before Korse recovered enough to grab at his arms, then he turned his anger back toward the only person who really deserved it.

Grabbing Korse by the collar, Ghoul shoved him against the elevator wall and slammed the blaster down onto his head. He wished he had something sharper, something heavier, something that would ruin him forever. But he didn’t have time to find those things. He had to do this now, and with what he was given. He put the blaster through his belt loop and decided to just use his fists. And use them he did, feeling Korse’s nose break, watching him choke on his own blood. He lost himself in making Korse feel all the pain he’d caused. He didn’t realize She was coming down the hall. Didn’t realize She had a taser. Almost didn’t feel it stab him in the back. But he definitely did feel it shock him, making his arms seize up.

“You’re being a bad boy, Frank.” Her voice was calm, almost amused.

He got a moment to recover, and he used it to spin around and punch Her as hard as he could.

It proved to be hard enough, seeing as her mechanical head snapped to the side and he heard something break. She fell backwards and went limp. Korse gasped and Ghoul spun back around to him, newly enraged that he was still alive and awake enough to realize what was happening.

He kicked him a few times, feeling his anger wane a bit. Then he ran out of the elevator and into the lobby. He grabbed Her taser as he thought of something. He knew where the breakers were, he could at the very least cause a power surge through the building.

He ran past scared workers and stunned guards. They’d all seen him completely knock Her our. The breakers were on the ground floor, in the lobby area. He didn’t know why, but that’s where they were. Pretty unprotected, in his opinion. He threw the panel open and jammed the taser into the panel. The building got bright, then everything went dark and people really started panicking.

Ghoul did one more surveying of the lobby before he ran out of the building. That was a mess. It was time to get the fuck out of Bat City.

* * *

Poison had been telling Dr. D and Show Pony about his dream and about how they needed to contact Silver ASAP. He’d been in the middle of his sentence when he and Show Pony fell limp to the ground.

“What the hell?!” Dr. Death shouted, just barely catching Show Pony before they hit their head. They were both- off? “Shit!”

BLI had done something, though he didn’t know what. Jet and Kobra were still out with the Sisters, and Dr. D had loaned the van to Quick Silver and the droids until they could get new wheels.

But then, just as soon as they’d gone out, Show Pony opened their eyes and stared up at Dr. D. Poison woke up too, and even started continuing his sentence until he realized something had happened.

“Wha- what the fuck just happened?” Poison asked, sitting up. “What the hell?”

“Death,” Show Pony said, getting up. “What just-”

“Something with BLI, it had to be,” Dr. D said, helping Show Pony stand.

“BLI doesn’t have their droids on a network,” Show Pony said.

“What if it was in the bomb they dropped?” Poison offered, standing up. 

“Maybe, I’ll have to look at the code,” Show Pony said, walking to their room. “Go find Quick Silver and find out if anything happened with the triplets.”

“They don’t look alike…” Poison muttered, but started walking toward the studio anyway. 

Dr. D followed him, tuning the broadcast to the main channel that the radios at the diner and the Nest were always tuned to. 

“Askin’ our friends if they can hear, please return to the radio station for a conference of sorts,” Dr. D said over the radio. “Something happened and we need confirmation of something.”

“Please,” Poison said, leaning over to talk into the microphone. “Something sketchy is going on. Also, we have updates.”

“Get here as soon as you can.” Dr. D set the message to replay for a while. They’d have to wait for them now.

* * *

Ghoul didn’t stop for anything. He had only a short amount of time to get from the headquarters to the gates to get back above ground. He assumed his barcodes still worked but was planning to jump the turnstiles anyway. Not like he was unrecognizable now, anyway. The whole damn city knew his face now. The bitch. He made it all the way to the stairs that lead topside before the city rebooted itself, the purple lights coming back on instead of green. He’d just have to force his way out. And even then, he was still in City Center. He had a couple hours to run before he actually got out of the city. This was going to be hard.

* * *

“They’re alive?!” Quick Silver shouted, standing up from her chair.

“I think so, we have to check the Nest to be sure,” Poison said. 

“What in the hell are we doing here, then?!” Silver ran out the door. She was in much better shape now, almost back in working order. She hadn’t fully healed, but she didn’t have to be. “Get in the van!”

* * *

Some idiot had left their cycle unattended. And thank god for it, too. It was like finding proof god did exist, it was just sitting there when he’d hid in the alleyway. Getting over the turnstile was easy, but then every guard at the gates was on his ass. He was in good shape, but the guards were trained to catch people, among other things. He’d barely lost them weaving through alleys, and when he’d finally stopped to hide in one he found a completely unharmed, fully charged Speed Cycle sitting there. It felt too easy, but Ghoul wasn’t about to pass up a much faster and safer way out of the city. Maybe Lucky’s charm had stuck to him.

Nonetheless, Ghoul fired up the cycle and sped off down the road. He even sped right past a group of guards, and as unintentional as it was, it was hilarious to see their dumbfounded faces. They scrambled to ask for backup, but Ghoul knew it wouldn’t be easy for them to get to their own cars or cycles. 

As Ghoul kept driving, he felt like the city gave up on trying to follow him. Maybe they had, he’d basically killed the current president back there. Plus, Korse, their best scarecrow, was beaten and bleeding in an elevator in the headquarters. Speaking of, that wasn’t very satisfying. Ghoul wanted to do more, make him hurt more, make him bleed, make him beg for mercy that wouldn’t come. But sometimes life didn’t give you those satisfying moments. And maybe it was a valuable lesson that sometimes revenge doesn’t feel good. Sometimes it feels messy and wrong. Sometimes Ghoul gave a shit, but now was not one of those times. Right now he was glad that Korse wouldn’t be able to open his left eye for a couple weeks.

* * *

Ghoul had been right. Poison had really shared a dream with him and what he’d told them was true. There really was a tunnel under the robot.

“Holy shit,” Poison said under his breath, pulling at the metal covering the opening. It was dark and looked deep, but Poison had robot eyes so he’d be able to see just fine.

“Party Poison, what do you see in there?” Silver called from slightly above him. He was in the robot’s chest, so he was slightly underground.

“He was right!” Poison called back, climbing back up through the wires and machinery. “He was fucking right! There’s a tunnel under the chest!”

“Holy fuck,” Live Wire said giddily. 

They’d all caught up. Live Wire told Poison that him and the other droids hadn’t suddenly turned off like Show Pony and Poison had. It had to be specific to their code or it had to be the bomb. Show Pony was around Poison soon enough that that theory still made sense.

“What do we do?” Silver asked, wringing her hands.

“You four take these flashlights, this lantern, and some food just in case, and you climb down there and see if the rest is true,” Dr. D said, opening the back of the van.

* * *

He’d finally made it to the slums, finally absolutely sure that no one was following him at this point. Ghoul sped down the street he’d almost been mugged at earlier. As he reached the shitty fencing marking the city’s above-ground border, he pulled back on the handlebars and lifted the cycle up, catching the incline of the fallen debris of an old building and launching himself over the fence. After that, all he had to do was get on the main highway. Then it was smooth sailing home.

* * *

Poison decided not to go, but he gave Silver his walkie talkie to help keep them in contact with them. Live Wire, Motor Mouth, and Roman Candle promised to keep them updated.

When Poison and Dr. D got back to the radio tower, Show Pony was just coming out of their room to update them on their efforts to dig into the code they’d previously copied from both themself and Poison via the Respite.

“We’ve got a little bit of an issue, P,” they said. Poison sighed deeply and followed them into their room.

* * *

So it wasn’t the smoothest sail ever. A cycle was much less… covered than a car was. And Ghoul was not prepared for how many fucking bugs were in the zones. He had the luxury of forgetting about it when they were in the cars or inside or focused on something else, but jesus, on a cycle you couldn’t ignore it. He was going insane with how many bugs had died on his forehead alone. Fucking disgusting.

* * *

“Embedded in our code?” Poison echoed.

“Yes,” Show Pony said, rubbing their eyes. “You were right, it was in the virus. It connected us wirelessly, somehow, to their network of mind-controlled droids. I managed to get rid of the mind control part of the code, but I wasn’t looking for a network connection.”

“What does that mean?” Poison’s leg shook anxiously.

“It means that either we try using the Respite again to rewrite that code,” Show Pony started.

“Which hurts like a motherfucker,” Poison added.

“Right. Or we leave it be.”

“Leave it be?! We can’t leave it be! What if they have another outage?! I’m not leaving that code in there!”

“Okay! Fine, hurts like a motherfucker it is!” Show Pony groaned, getting up to go to their closet. “I don’t even know if it’ll work, though, P.”

“Trying is better than nothing,” Poison said, moving to their bed to lie down.

“You two okay in there?” Dr. D asked through the door.

“Busy, Death,” Show Pony called, putting the Respite down roughly next to the bed. They popped open the top and pulled the electrodes off their dock. “And don’t come in if you hear screaming.”

“Uh…”

* * *

Finally- finally! Ghoul saw the radio tower. It had been hours, the sun was going down and everything. Turns our a cycle is not, in fact, faster or even as fast as the trans am was. Kobra always was pretty serious about the fact that it was the second fastest car in the zones. Second only to Roadrunner’s car, of course.

The little blinking red light on top of the radio tower was like a beacon of hope. His friends were there, his- well, yeah, his boyfriend was there. His life was there, and he was tired of eating fucking bugs on accident. It was awful, and all he wanted was the semi-running water of the radio tower.

* * *

Dr. D tried really hard not to check on them. Poison was screaming his head off, but Show Pony had said everything was fine. Whatever that fucking Respite was really did a number on droids. Thankfully, while he was waiting for them to get done, Kobra and Jet came back with a car.

“Hey, Dr. D,” Kobra said. Death had come out front to meet them. 

“Welcome back, you two,” he said. “Don’t freak out when you hear screaming inside, Show Pony’s doin’ something.”

“What?” Jet stared at him. “Screaming?”

“Yeah, it’s hard to explain but it’s alright. Poison’s alright.”

“Poison is screaming?” Kobra asked, standing a bit taller. 

“Yeah but don’t go in there, everything’s-” Dr. D was cut off by the sound of a Speed Cycle speeding down the road toward the radio tower. “What the fuck?”

Kobra put his hand on his blaster and Jet already had his drawn. Almost nobody in the zones used cycles anymore, so it was almost certainly BLI. But then, as they got closer, Jet dropped his blaster.

“Holy shit, it’s-” Jet started.

The cycler came right up to them and skidded to a stop, kicking up some dirt. It was undoubtedly Fun Ghoul.

“Holy fuck!” Kobra shouted, running over to hug him.

“Hey!” Ghoul laughed. “Hold on, I’ve got bugs all in my face.”

“Back from the fucking dead!” Jet shouted, going to hug him too.

“Bugs on face!” Ghoul yelled, muffled by Jet’s shoulder.

Dr. D laughed at the boys. He was more than relieved that Ghoul had found his way home. Though, Death never had a doubt that, if he was alive, he would find a way to get back to them. Hell, even if he’d died Death assumed he’d fight the Phoenix Witch to get back to them.

Once they’d all had their fill of hugs, Ghoul parked the cycle next to the new car Jet and Kobra had found. When they all went inside, Show Pony had apparently finally finished torturing Poison or whatever it was the Respite did.

“He’s clean,” they said, shoving Poison out of their room and shutting the door. Dr. D assumed it was their turn for the Respite.

“Ghoul?” Poison said. And damn, he looked really fucking out of it. 

“Hey, P! You just wake up?” Ghoul chuckled, going over to hug him.

“Ow,” Poison mumbled, hugging back anyway. “Uh, sort of. It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.”

“Ow? Are you okay?” Ghoul stepped back from the hug just in case.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just- I’m fine.” Poison blinked a few times, rubbed his eyes, and then really looked at Ghoul properly. “You’re gross. You need a shower.”

“Could say the same for you,” Ghoul said. Poison was sort of a wreck. His shirt was sticking to his chest from sweat and his hair was a mess. If Ghoul didn’t know better, it would seem like he’d just had sex. And he wasn’t going to think about Poison having sex, not in front of the other Killjoys. 

“Let’s take one together, then,” Poison said casually. Ghoul almost choked on his spit. “Because, like, saving water.”

“Sure.” Ghoul couldn’t tell if his voice sounded weird.

Jet and Kobra rolled their eyes, but felt relieved that things were getting back to normal already.

* * *

“It’s amazing down here,” Quick Silver said over the radio. “Lucky has really made a home out of this place.”

“I know right?” Ghoul said.

It was the next day. Quick Silver and the three droids had finally made it to the end of the tunnels, and when they finally stumbled out from around the boulders, Lucky was waiting for them with hot meals and five very excited children. Silver had cried, checking each one of the kids and repeatedly thanking Lucky for everything. The three droids, having a surprising knowledge about gardening and landscaping, insisted on helping take care of Lucky’s garden to repay him. The kids told Silver about everything Lucky and Ghoul had done to keep them safe, and York told her about how she’d kept an eye on everything and how she trusted Lucky. And that was enough for Silver to hear. If York, _York_ , trusted Lucky, Silver could trust him.

“You said the droids were helping out with the garden?” Ghoul asked, spinning in Dr. D’s old desk chair. 

“Yes,” Silver laughed. “They apparently used to be landscaping droids.”

“Landscaping? For where? There’s no land to scape in the city.”

“That’s what I said, but apparently someone somewhere needed landscapers. Anyhow, they’ve got a huge amount of knowledge about crops and gardening too, so they’re keeping up the garden for Lucky to say thanks.”

“That’s nice of them.”

“It is. I also told Lucky that I’m planning on building me and the kids a separate house down here.”

“Really?”

“Yes, I don’t want to just move right into Lucky’s house, we’re already using his land. I don’t want to be a bother. I’d rather be a neighbor than someone taking advantage of him.”

“Do you want us to send down supplies? We’ve got plenty of scrap metal.”

“That would be really helpful, thank you.”

“You’re always welcome, Silver.”

Things certainly were getting back to normal. Poison was so much happier with the kids being able to live comfortable, safe, and somewhat normal lives at the bottom of Dead Man’s Drop. And as it turned out, BLI did go back to search the Cannery. The Sisters had promised to keep eyes on it for them, and they’d seen at least one scarecrow and a group of dracs search the building. They knew it existed out there, so now it wasn’t even a question of whether to go back. 

“Oh, Fun Ghoul,” Silver said. She always called everyone by their full name, for some reason. “I have some thing to ask of you, and I’m sorry to have to.”

“I repeat, you’re always welcome. What do you need?” Ghoul pulled out a small notepad just in case. They were trying to be more professional with requests from zoners.

“There’s someone I need you to find, I want her to know about this place too.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“I trust her with my kids, it would betray her trust if I didn’t tell her.” 

“Okay. What’s their name? Who do I ask for?” Ghoul readied his pencil. 

“Bombshell Bride,” Silver said, sighing. “I think she said once that she hangs around with the Birds of Prey. I don’t know where their clubhouse is, but if you wouldn’t mind asking around for me?”

“It’d be no problem at all. I’ll tell Dr. Death to put out a call to the Birds.” Ghoul jotted down her request, circling the name she’d given him. 

“Than you, Fun Ghoul. I don’t know what I ever would have done if the Killjoys hadn’t come to help us.”

“Thank Cherry,” Ghoul laughed.

“Ah, yes I suppose it was her faul- er, choice. It was her decision that led you to us. Nonetheless, thank you for everything.”

“You’re welcome, I mean it.”

“I should do, then. I promised to help with cleaning up after the kids. They can be quite a handful.”

“Alright, you go do that. I’ll radio when I have supplies for you.”

“Thank you again.”

“No problem.”

Ghoul left the walkie talkie on Death’s desk, leaving the office to go outside. Out front, Kobra was going through their new car, a slightly newer model trans am, and cataloging all the upgrades he was going to make. Jet was in charge of writing down everything he said. Poison was sitting on the cycle and making notes of upgrades for it. 

Things were getting back to normal. Normal for the zones, which was all they needed. Their awareness in the zones had grown so much recently. The very existence of Zone 7 had always been in question, but the Hideout, where Lucky lived, proved it was real. There was no telling what lied within its other borders. Ghoul was actually very curious.

“New proposition for vehicle naming convention,” Poison said suddenly, sitting up straight.

Kobra stopped talking, leaning to look at him from around the hood of the car.

“New ‘am is Big Bitch, new cycle is Little Bitch.”

Jet and Ghoul laughed, but Kobra seemed to seriously consider it. 

“Maybe,” he said, going back to making his checklist.

“Hey, no!” Ghoul said. “I stole the cycle, I should get to name her!”

“Hm, he had a point,” Kobra said, looking back at Poison.

“I can easily convince you of Little Bitch,” Poison said as Ghoul walked over to him. “Because you are one too.”

“Oh fuck you,” Ghoul laughed, rolling his eyes. He climbed onto the cycle in front of Poison, kicking the stand up and turning it on. It still had a pretty full battery. 

“Hey, we’re not done yet, where are you going?” Kobra said, glaring at them.

“I’m just making sure she runs well with a passenger,” Ghoul said innocently. Poison hugged him around his middle.

“We don’t have helmets,” Poison pointed out.

“Oh, then we’ll go check the closet at the diner and see if we have any there,” Ghoul said, backing the cycle up.

“Just make sure you come back,” Kobra said, sighing then going back to the car.

“Always, Kid,” Ghoul said with a smile, turning them toward the road and speeding off, making Poison shout.

* * *

The diner seemed to always stay the same, but never get stale. The Killjoys had filled the kitchen with clothes since it was just Jet and Kobra. At first it was because they didn’t have anywhere else to live, then it just made sense not to take up all that room in the radio tower, and then it just became where they left almost everything they wouldn’t hate to lose. Ghoul had started leaving stuff there, too. He liked to leave the shit he’d taken from the city there. Poison didn’t have a whole lot of stuff that was his, but sometimes he would leave an old shirt there. 

Ghoul parked the cycle inside the diner. It was safer than leaving it outside, especially in Zone 1. 

“So, what are we actually doing here?” Poison asked, hopping off the back of the cycle and jumping up to sit on top of a table.

“Y’know, find helmets, maybe riding gloves,” Ghoul said, shrugging. He walked up to Poison, standing between his legs. “And maybe some other stuff.”

“Find other stuff?” Poison looped his arms around Ghoul’s shoulders. “Or do other stuff?”

“Hmm…” Ghoul pursed his lips as he put his hands on Poison’s hips. “I guess that’s up to you.”

Poison rolled his eyes. Back to normal.

**Author's Note:**

> PLEASE leave a comment or a kudos if you enjoyed this. I fought to keep this fucker alive. I'm also going to keep writing but man I've taken a huge hit to my life because of this computer thing. I always appreciate feedback as well.  
> As always, if you see a typo, formatting issue, or anything that needs fixed, please tell me!  
> Thank you so much for reading!


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